Conquest
by Adistoria
Summary: Naruto attempts to attract the attention of the new Teaching Assistant, Uchiha Sasuke, at his university. AU, M/M, NaruSasu/SasuNaru
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am in no way associated with the owner and no copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

**Title: **Conquest  
**Author: **Adi / silverwyrm  
**Genre: **Humour/Romance/AU  
**Pairings: **SasuNaru/NaruSasu and a little KibaHina on the side  
**Rating: **Mature  
**Warnings: **M/M action, masturbation, Lee's oversized balls...  
**Story status:** Multi-chapter, Complete  
**Fanart: **http: / / silverwyrm. livejournal. com/ 8338. html, please take a look, the artists are amazing.  
**Summary: **Naruto attempts to attract the attention of the new Teaching Assistant, Uchiha Sasuke, at his university.  
**A/N:** My first fic \o/ but don't let that scare you ;D

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**Prologue**

* * *

Naruto approached the new TA's desk. He needed to put this very carefully, just so that his message came across in a subtle yet straight forward manner. They were alone in the lecture hall and another class wasn't due for a whole hour. Plenty of time.

"Wanna fuck?" Were the first words to be blurted from Naruto's mouth.

Sasuke for his part took Naruto's 'subtle' message calmly. He raised an elegant (obviously waxed) eyebrow.

"Uzumaki, if you think sexual favors are going to raise your abysmally low grade in this course, you're wrong."

Naruto spluttered. Outrage welled inside of him. How dare he imply that Naruto was stupid _and_ a whore.

Naruto had been crushing quite heavily on the new TA, probably ever since he had set eyes on the ever so slightly girly looking yet stunning TA with (as he had heard other girls describe) dark eyes you could get lost in forever and ever. Naruto didn't mind that there were a hundred or so girls madly in love with the TA, constantly throwing themselves at him. To Naruto it was quite obvious that Sasuke was gay. How could he not be? Blue-black hair although very pretty was obviously not natural. Other things that weren't natural were the spikes sticking out at the back, Sasuke obviously abused hair products in his free time.

Now although Naruto had decided that the TA was to be his new conquest, he had never actually gotten to know him. This is why Sasuke's cold response caught him off guard. Okay so perhaps Naruto could have worded it better, he could have politely asked for tutoring over dinner perhaps and given the famous Uzumaki Naruto I-am-sex-on-legs smile. That would have worked a charm, it always had in the past.

Naruto's mouth opened and closed a few times as he struggled with his reply.

"Uzumaki, as much as I appreciate the view of where my dick could go, I have papers to mark."

This remark was punctuated with the first few eager to learn students entering the lecture hall. Naruto balled his fists in frustration. Sasuke raised his eyebrow yet again. Naruto stalked out.

* * *

**Stupid Stupid Stupid STUPID, GAH!!.** Naruto smart university student that he was had failed to factor in the fact that Sasuke was TA to _other_ courses. Right, Plan A didn't work, now onto Plan B, except there was no Plan B. So Naruto did what any student does during the daytime; he went to the union bar. His roommate Kiba was the part-time bartender there, now Naruto hadn't managed to get free drinks yet, but persistence was an Uzumaki trait.

"So let me get this straight, you politely asked him out on a date, and he called you a whore, and that's exactly how it went?" Kiba in his new role of bartender was doing his impression of a bartender by pretending to dry glasses with a rag.

Naruto, by now was slumped over the bar, nursing his third beer and muttering about how he could do the stupid raising an eyebrow trick too, he just didn't want to. He nodded vigorously and bemoaned his fate to celibacy.

Kiba listened on, thoroughly amused. He had been Naruto's best friend since high school, so he knew Naruto's version was pretty far from the truth.

"I refuse to give up Kiba! I haven't been laid in 2 months. _Two months._ This Sasuke guy seems to be the only one The Dagger seems to be interested in." Naruto began to wave his arms around energetically, "Do you know what going without sex can do to a guy?" he lowered his voice furtively whispered "I've heard if you don't use it, you lose it."

"'The Dagger' heh, you seem to have a new name for it every week," was Kiba's less than enthusiastic reply as his went about wiping the mess Naruto had created. "Can't you sit still for just one moment?!"

"Kiba…" Naruto began his whining. Then he produced the Uzumaki (manly) puppy dog eyes, the pout was just forming when Kiba cracked.

"Alright, just stop looking so constipated. With Hinata, frankly, I stalked her until I found out everything about her and then pretended to be her fantasy guy, worked a treat."

"You stalked her? That's creepy!" Naruto was slowly edging off his bar stool.

Kiba growled "Will you stop that? That's what you wanted isn't it?"

"Hehehe yeah, so erm, how is Hinata in the sack-" Naruto was cut off as Kiba reached over and attempted to strangle him. "Ow, Kiba! Let go! You're choking me..gah..ah.." Kiba relented. "Sheesh, it's not like I asked if she minds Akamaru watching..." Naruto leapt out of strangling range and thought it was time to make his exit. He had Plan B to work on.


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am in no way associated with the owner and no copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

* * *

It had been a _whole fucking week_. All that Naruto had learnt about Sasuke was that he was a prick. Not just a little bit of a prick, oh no, he was a complete prick. In fact at this very moment Naruto was hard pressed to think of anyone else that he knew of that was that much of a prick.

Naruto still had a very moody Kiba on his hands for the Akamaru comment and so was now stuck talking (bitching/complaining/whining) to Sakura at her apartment. He wasn't getting very far explaining his problem because Sakura was having difficulty understanding that Sasuke was part of the homo tribe.

"_Naruto_! For the last time, get it into your teeny weeny brain. Sasuke. Is. Not. Gay." With that his pink-haired course mate turned, kicked him in the shins and went in search of her hair straightners, while cursing under her breath about moronic blonds that wouldn't know what gaydar was if it rammed itself up their ass.

Naruto sighed and fell back down on the couch; rubbing his leg (Sakura was frighteningly strong). He figured that Sakura was just bitter because Sasuke seemed to be immune to Sakura's attentions. The fluttering of eyelashes, the coy smile, the hair flick followed by the strut just didn't do it for Sasuke, why? Because he was _gay_. Naruto yelled just that to Sakura who was now holed up in the bathroom. A hairbrush aimed at his head met that remark.

* * *

Naruto had met Sakura on his first day at university. Being a fresher was hard; he had to look cool, flirt, be smart, charming and funny all at the same time. This was particularly difficult for Naruto because whilst letting a fart rip was extremely funny in his opinion, it wasn't exactly charming to the ladies. They had met while Naruto was trying to do exactly this; demonstrate his personality multi-tasking skills at the freshers' fayre.

The freshers' fayre was where the students signed up for clubs and committees for the year, whilst having sweets chucked at them (bribing material) and loud rock music with the retaliation of even louder hip hop music blasted in their ears. Needless to say Naruto was in his element. He quite literally bounced from one booth to another signing up for everything, every single religious society, dance group, and green peace organization was met with the Uzumaki shit-eating grin and his email address.

Then he had seen her, the green eyed goddess, standing at the water fountain tossing her pink hair in slow motion. It had been love at first sight. His approach had been carefully thought out, after all these weren't high school chicks anymore; they were university chicks, older, more mature, and more importantly hotter, **ooooooooh yeah. **

"Hey baby, you come here often?" Of course this was Naruto; his pick up lines left something to be desired.

The green eyed goddess had turned, given him without a doubt the filthiest look he had ever received and raised a single pink eyebrow. Apparently everyone could this, just not Naruto.

Kiba, who had been watching from the sidelines, had done damage control. He had rushed in, grabbed Naruto in an arm lock and yelled an apology at the girl with the huge forehead. It had been something along the lines of: _'Sorry, sometimes he escapes from his leash and manages to get the muzzle off, bad dog Naruto, bad dog!'_

The next time they had met Sakura had been a little more forthcoming; she was lost and Naruto knew the way to the lecture theatre. It took a while for Naruto to stop attempting to get into Sakura's pants, but she managed to quite literally beat the message into his head, often with the help of her textbooks. They had the same first year classes despite doing different courses. Sakura studied Medicinal Chemistry, Naruto studied Biomedical Sciences.

They were in their third year now, they had both matured and could handle their non-sexual friendship quite well; Naruto frequently leered at and groped Sakura, and Sakura frequently took the liberty of aiming a kick at his most prized (and most sensitive) possessions.

* * *

"Naruto! You are not going dressed like _that_ are you?!" Sakura emerged from the bathroom transformed from moderately pretty student to smoking hot please-spank-me woman. Naruto's mouth fell open; he was getting in a lot of practice for looking like a fish. She was wearing black leather trousers with a form fitting white shirt that showed more than a little cleavage.

"Sakura, this is a stake out, we are just _watching_ Sasuke over his lunch period." Then of course it hit Naruto. "Ah I see Sakura, you think this is just like in the movies, girl and guy are holed up together in a stake out, and things get a little steamy…" Naruto waggled his eyebrows and leered, his leer was promptly removed from his face as he found himself being smothered with a pillow. These attempts on his life were starting to irritate him.

"For your information, a girl likes to dress up now again, it's nice to look sexy, makes one feel good." Sakura's condescending response had Naruto burst into a fit of giggles, well it would have if she had removed the pillow before saying all that.

Naruto gasped for air and still managed to leer at the same time. "Hey Sakura, since Sasuke's gay and all you might have a better chance now with all that leather, you know us gays, we're suckers for leather." Sakura's look promised pain, Naruto took that as his cue to start running.

* * *

Naruto was dressed in all orange. He wore orange boxer shorts, orange socks, an orange t-shirt and orange jeans. Sakura was stumped as to where he had managed to find orange jeans. She smiled sweetly at him and steadied her spying backpack. She hadn't had to use it since she was thirteen. However Sasuke was special. That black hair of his was probably softer than a baby's butt, and all the white unmarked skin just waiting for her to bite into. She sighed. Yes, Sasuke was special.

Naruto raised an eyebrow (okay he raised both of them, but he was trying!) at the dreamy look that crossed Sakura's face. She was probably having dominatrix fantasies about what she could do to Sasuke. Naruto wasn't worried, Sakura's previous boyfriend, Neji, had turned out to be gay (Naruto liked to think Sakura turned Neji gay) she just had a knack for picking out the sexually unavailable ones.

They left the apartment and headed towards the lecture theatre where Sasuke was meant to have been filling in for the professor. They snuck in round the back shushing each other as they went and caught the end of the lecture which happened to be something about proteins. Naruto shrugged he'd know this stuff come exam time. The blond wasn't paying too much attention as he was doing his fish impression again. Sasuke was striding confidently and his lips were moving. All Naruto could think about was as how much prettier those lips would look wrapped around his cock.

He grunted when he felt something hard drive into his side. Sakura had just elbowed him, really _really_ hard. "Ow… what's the deal Sakura?!"

"You're drooling," Sakura deadpanned.

"Heh, well you would too if you could see what I was thinking," Naruto shifted in his chair, he was developing a hard on. This was ridiculous, 'The Dagger' only seemed to respond to Sasuke nowadays, no amount of porn, gay or otherwise could deter 'The Dagger' from what it wanted.

Sakura sniffed, shooting him a disapproving glare and went back to drooling herself.

* * *

At the end of the lecture there was there was the usual ruckus of everyone packing away their things, and the over enthusiastic girls attempting to strike up a conversation with Sasuke in the disguise of misunderstanding what the entire lecture was about. Naruto ducked down behind the seats effectively hiding him. A lack of orange might have helped but some sacrifices he just couldn't make.

While Naruto was busy hiding, Sakura had been ambushed by Rock Lee. The bushy browed all-green-wearing third year was quite smitten with Sakura and was insisting on carrying her book bag (spy kit). She gave into her fate, she had learned that much from Neji, and allowed Rock Lee to escort her to lunch, whilst shooting glares at Naruto who was currently on all fours.

The lecture hall emptied eventually, it took twenty minutes for Sasuke to get rid of his admirers. The brunet did not leave the lecture hall and Naruto was not going to reveal his hiding space. Contrary to what he was doing, he did not want to appear as a crazy stalker. Sasuke sat there calmly marking papers. Naruto started to get a tad uncomfortable between his position and his still-there hard-on, he was very close to just attacking Sasuke and having his naughty way with him. What kind of guy didn't get lunch?! The fact that Sasuke donned a pair of black rimmed glasses did not discourage The Dagger. It only made him harder.

**Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck.** Naruto tried to will away his erection; his efforts seemed to be wasted as mind led him along a different tract. He was imagining the expressions on Sasuke's face as he fucked him on that desk. That desk over there, where Sasuke was still calmly marking papers.

Sasuke looked up, peered at the seats, apparently seeing nothing, went back to working. Naruto released the breath he was holding. **God help me.**

* * *

It wasn't until the lunch hour had finished, that Sasuke collected his things and made way for the next professor's class. Naruto deemed it safe to emerge when Sasuke left and student's started filing in. He was given an odd looks as he scrambled up from his position, stretching and popping his joints. He grinned sheepishly, rubbed the back of his neck and made a beeline for the exit.

**Now where did Sasuke go?**

* * *

Well this was unexpected. Same situation all over again, Naruto had somehow ended up watching Sasuke from his hiding place behind the seats while Sasuke was _still _calming marking papers at that desk. The unexpected part was where Sasuke had leaned back in his swivel chair and started rubbing his crotch. Those dark eyes, partially hidden by glasses, looking straight at Naruto's hiding spot. Sasuke's had licked his pink very fuckable lips and that's pretty much all it took for Naruto to nearly come right there and then.

That is how _that desk _was now sans all papers and Sasuke's very naked, very white ass was now parked on it, as Naruto thrust in and out of said ass.

"Oh baby, you feel _so tight, _" Naruto grunted and panted as he tried to restrain himself from coming too soon.

Sasuke responded by licking Naruto's face. His mouth, his eyes, his nose and cheeks were no longer strangers to Sasuke's saliva. Naruto didn't mind, it felt kinda good actually.

"Naruto," Sasuke gasped, "Naruto, Naruto, _Naruto_!" The last part came out quite gruffly and then Naruto felt as if all the air had left his lungs.

He woke.

Kiba towered over him, holding a pillow menacingly.

"GAHHHHH!" Kiba's face was not a pretty face to wake up to. What was even less pretty was when he turned to see what he had been holding onto (and grinding against) on the couch, was none other than Akamaru, who despite the atmosphere was wagging his tail and licking Naruto's face quite happily.

"Ehehe, hey Kiba, I was uh, just taking a nap?" The pillow met his face.

"I asked you to watch Akamaru for an hour, _one hour _, Naruto, so that I could take my sister's evil brainless cat to the vet, and I find you humping Akamaru?! I know you were getting desperate, but Akamaru? _My Akamaru_?!" Kiba continued to rant, gesturing wildly, causing Naruto to retreat and make calming motions with his hands.

Gaara made an entrance at this point. He lived next door with his siblings. The red head stood at the open door of the apartment, with his arms crossed, face expressionless and waited for them to notice him. This didn't take too long, as Gaara's blank green eyed stare could cause hives and alert anyone to his presence.

"Yo Gaara!" Naruto made use of Gaara's impeccable timing. He leaped from his cowering position on the couch and attempted to rugby tackle him in a (manly) hug. He would have succeeded too if it wasn't Gaara was all too used to this form of greeting from Naruto and sidestepped at the last moment. Naruto, by the laws of motion landed on the floor in the hallway.

"Keep the noise down." Gaara intoned quietly, paired with the look that promised death to anyone who denied his 'request'.

This of course did nothing to discourage Naruto, who started enquiring after Gaara's health and if he was getting enough sleep, because boy hadn't those rings around his eyes been there since they had met? Gaara was Naruto's favourite emo. The bright red hair and the green eyes were the only colours on Gaara's person. Ever. Gaara had an affinity for black, quite similar to Naruto's love for orange, just less of an eyesore.

Naruto enquired, Gaara continued to stare impassively. Naruto enquired, Gaara continued to stare impassively. This little cycle continued for a while until Akamaru, bless his soul, decided Naruto's leg was his new humping post. Gaara left, taking the oppressive tension filled silence with him.

Kiba was in shock. His precious Akamaru's innocence had just been ruined before his eyes. Although Kiba didn't know that this had already happened quite a while ago when Akamaru mysteriously disappeared in the park whilst playing fetch. While the owner had frantically searched, Akamaru had taken the opportunity to get frisky with as many dogs as possible.

"Kiba, we need to talk," Naruto had his serious expression on. "Does Hinata know that you love and lust after Akamaru more than you do her?"

After being chased around the couch, while Akamaru yipped in a dog's version of a cheerleader and until Kiba was too tired to run after the energetic blond, they settled back on the couch, playing videogames. As students, videogame practice was a top priority.

"The Dagger is in love with Sasuke," Naruto's nonchalant words caused Kiba to choke on his drink. The choking was followed by hysterical laughter.

"Dude, your cock loves the new TA?" He wheezed out between his fits of laughter. "Oh man, you've got it bad." A thoughtful expression crossed Kiba's face. "You know, this is probably revenge of the cock or something, for naming it something as stupid as 'The Dagger'."

Naruto's face scrunched up. "Oi, it's a very cool name, alright? You named yours 'Stake' c'mon, watched a few too many vampire movies lately?" Naruto sniggered. Then leered, "What does Hinata think of it?"

Kiba grunted. "You're gonna have to speak a little louder there Kiba".

"She doesn't know," Kiba muttered. "She's Hinata, it's not like that."

Hinata and Kiba had been dating for quite a few months now. Naruto, sensitive character that he was, just assumed the shy nervous wreck of a girl was a wildcat in bed and that is why she and Kiba had lasted so long. He never thought Kiba had _real feelings_ for the second year History student.

"Listen, man, I gotta go to work, I'm covering some shifts tonight, you know, need the extra cash." Kiba rose, looking slightly apologetic and was he blushing?

Naruto still slightly dumbfounded at his having discovered his best friend was in a serious relationship, nodded and watched as Kiba grabbed his keys and exited their apartment.

"Well, boy it looks like it's just you and me tonight?" He turned to Akamaru who had fallen asleep and was leaving slobber on the cushions and felt profound loneliness settle on him.

* * *

Sasuke was having an internal tantrum. He was stuck yet again, helping first year students' in labs. He was a PhD student, of course extra lab work would look excellent on his CV, but this was just getting absurd. His professor, Hatake Kakashi had been gleefully happy when Sasuke had applied for the position of TA. Usually a first year PhD student wasn't applicable for a TA position. However Sasuke had demonstrated his capability through his series of top marks through out his time at the university; Sasuke was more than qualified.

Kakashi though, had taken advantage of this. Just because he wore some stupid eye patch and a stupidly long turtleneck that covered half his face and looked kinda cool, he thought he could use Sasuke's need for academic recognition to con Sasuke into covering most of his lectures and taking his labs. So here Sasuke was, helping stupid first years, with their stupid experiments, while the stupid female ones gawked at him. To make matters worse all he could think of was the adjective stupid to describe everything around him in his stupid internal monologue.

Sasuke sighed, cursed Kakashi a little bit more and set about packing away his things. It was close to 7pm now because one student decided to do things at snail pace, effectively killing their tissue. **Idiots, the lot of them. **

He wasn't the type of student to spend the evening getting incredibly drunk, having blackouts and generally pissing around. He was a good student; he planned, and worked meticulously. However, Sasuke was also human, and right now he needed vodka.

He donned his jacket and headed towards the union bar. On his way he thought about the blond moron Uzumaki who had been stalking him. Did the moron honestly think he wouldn't notice? Especially with the orange clothing the idiot seemed to be so fond of. Sasuke was a private person by nature, and Uzumaki was testing his patience. He viewed it almost as challenge, to make sure the blond found out as little as possible about him.

So what if the blond's image haunted his dreams at night. It wasn't his fault, that his libido had hit a very low point and decided to find tall, muscled, tanned blonds attractive. Sasuke sighed, shook his head, and marched on to his destination. Sasuke was not the type to give into his sexual desires, some might call him anally repressed, he liked to think he was reserved, and a little aloof. So when Uzumaki had come forward and expressed his intentions ever so eloquently, it had been easy for Sasuke to sneer and turn him down. After all Sasuke didn't have time for such frivolities.

Arriving at the bar, Sasuke grabbed a stool and sat down and ordered his drink from the spiky haired brunet serving. Sasuke didn't frequently drink so some might call him a lightweight. He certainly didn't know his limits. This is why just a few shots later Sasuke had turned from his primly dressed self, into a tousled haired, flushed face student with crumpled clothing, doing the clichéd thing of telling his woes to the bartender; who was looking increasingly panicked.


	3. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am in no way associated with the owner and no copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

* * *

Kiba watched as the student he had been serving for what seemed like just an hour reached the point of no return. You see there was always the one lonely depressed student that seemed to think their problems were above all others and liked to burden said problems on an unsuspecting bartender. Kiba generally had a good read on those sorts and usually managed to keep well away, or at the very least refuse to serve them anymore alcohol.

However this one, this one was of a different quality, or at least a little bit crafty. He took his drink, sipped calmly and remained quiet for the better part of that hour. In fact he had been a little bit too quiet, and it had unnerved Kiba slightly.

Quiet ones tended to have quite a lot of trouble attached, and he had learnt this from experience. His girlfriend, Hinata, had Neji. Neji was Hinata's creepy ass cousin who had threatened to castrate Kiba within two minutes of meeting him. Come to think of it, this guy looked a lot like Neji. Maybe he was Neji with a haircut? Kiba peered at him, Nope, definitely not Neji.

Kiba liked to think he was macho; he could handle anything and be manly while he did it, but Neji? Well Neji had it in for him and in fact had a large collection of swords, so Kiba didn't see anything unmanly about hiding anytime he did see Neji.

This guy though, one minute there was silence from his end with the occasional 'Hn', and then next he was muttering under his breath, and then he was talking quite loudly apparently to himself. Kiba had never seen this kind of reaction to alcohol before and at first found it amusing until he realised that everyone else had edged away and he was left alone to deal with him.

"So, Kakashi right? He tells me I have to look 'Underneath the underneath'" The student used air quotes for the last remark. "And _then_ he tells me I have to get laid, have you seen me? I get laid plenty, plenty! What kind of professor is he?!" The student hadn't started slurring just yet but his appearance said something entirely different about his drunken state. A strange evolution of hair and clothing had occurred to this student, directly proportional to the amount he drank.

"Hey! Where's my drink?" Kiba had decided enough was enough. He had been more than happy to leave this quite mentally disturbed student who appeared to have a too-close relationship/obsession with his professor to some of the fawning girls. Problem was this guy could rival Gaara in icy I-will-kill-joo glares. It was still early in the evening, students didn't start their heavy drinking until much later, but still this guy was proving a little too much to handle, he heard learnt more about this dude than he cared for.

"Then there is that twit, freaking wears orange all the time. All the time. All the time. Okay once, he wore these jeans, right, with this black T-shirt, and I gotta tell ya, that was a little hot, okay a lot hot. Hot. Wow, is it hot in here?" Turns out the dude was also gay. **Well that is just perfect; the guy is a melodramatic queen. **Kiba groaned and was quite tempted to pour himself a stiff one.

"He's been stalking me! I've been stalked before, but never quite so stupidly…" Kiba resigned himself to listening. Customers were rare on Monday nights because it was "Monday Mania Night" Students celebrate the wonder that was Monday by clustering in the various clubs that were 5 minutes walking/drunken stumbling distance from the university. Sighing for the umpteenth time and wishing he hadn't covered for Shikamaru, he went back to wiping the mess on the table that his new favourite customer had created.

"So he comes up to me and goes 'Wanna fuck?' and he's got this stupid look on his face like he thinks he's God's gift to women…uh men.. mankind, whatever. Then he watches me. I could have sworn this one time he followed me into the bathroom!" The student turned to Kiba quite clearly expecting Kiba to be outraged for him.

Kiba nodded, put on his best sympathetic look and tried to make it seem like he was listening. **This guy talks too fast; he could give Naruto a run for his money. **

"…I don't like blonds, they're irritating, you know…" Kiba spaced out from the drunken ramblings and was slightly startled when the guy just passed out, head thunking hard on the table. Kiba was pretty sure he had monitored how much alcohol he'd served the guy.

He heard a few muttered grunts emitting from the student. Kiba sighed in relief; usually drunken students had friends to deal with them in all their refined glory. However sometimes he was stuck with the mess; being the newbie, he had to either chuck them out or attempt to sober them up.

"Mmm Uuuzuuuumakiiiii..." Right there and then, Kiba had a heart attack.

* * *

Naruto had a lot of coursework. He had two essays due and a lab report to write up. The computer was on, his textbooks were open; it was going to be a long night. Currently he was teaching Akamaru the Macarena; loud music blasted from the stereo speakers hung on the walls as Naruto emphasized the swish of the hips to Akamaru.

"No, no, no, no, _NO_! C'mon Akamaru, gimme something to work with," Naruto pouted when Akamaru lost all interest and presented his rear to Naruto. Feeling rejection well up inside him, Naruto shot back, "you know, sometimes you remind me of a cat!" Feeling a bit justified, he stuck his tongue out.

That queasy feeling right below his heart near his ribcage had returned. Naruto thought it may have been due to the fact that love from his cock had started to spread upwards towards other body organs. It was more than likely due to heartburn resulting from the ten bowls of ramen he had scoffed for dinner. He was a growing boy of twenty one, he needed the nutrients ramen provided, and he just needed to eat a lot of it for said nutrients to add up.

Naruto scowled as his thoughts inevitably led to Sasuke. Kiba's lame 'stalk them and be fantasy guy' plan was turning into moot. He didn't quite understand this obsession with dark-eyed TA. All the girls and guys he had dated in the past had been happy people, they smiled and stuff. Normal people. It also hadn't been this much of an effort to get into their pants.

His learning about Sasuke wasn't going too well either. He had learnt, aside from the fact that Sasuke was a prick, that he was a complete geek. He spent all his time in the library, the computer cluster rooms and the labs when he wasn't covering lectures. The guy didn't know how to have fun and seemed to be set on collecting the coldest, most condescending personality award. **Probably has an icicle shoved too far up his ass. Hm would it feel good if it was only a little bit shoved in? **

Naruto would have given up by now, but his cock was still bent on having its way with Sasuke, even though he had stopped calling it 'The Dagger'. Maybe it was the loneliness that he saw in Sasuke's eyes and felt he could identify with. Naruto didn't know, he was rarely a deep thinker and so dismissed the notion. Who was lonely? Naruto wasn't.

Naruto flopped down on the couch, all ready to take a nap and then he could tackle that pile of work. He was just drifting off with happy thoughts about icicles when the phone rang. Having been startled awake from what looked to be a promising dream, he answered his mobile a little irritably.

"Whaaaaaat?" He whined. This had better be good.

"Yo Naruto, gotta make this quick, manager doesn't know I'm using the bar phone, but first, how's Akamaru?"

"Kiba, man, seriously, you know bestiality is illegal in most countries..." Naruto scrunched up his face as an unwelcome picture flooded his mind. "Oh man, images."

"You know what; I'm not going to tell you. This is good. But still. I'm not telling you," Kiba growled in response.

"Awww, Kiba, I was only joking," Naruto started whining; "Here," he held the phone up to Akamaru who happily barked into it.

"Ah fuck, managers coming," Kiba quickly whispered, "Sasuke's at the bar, really drunk, come pick him up. Oh and don't wear orange," and with that hung up.

"Kiba wha…?" Naruto glanced at the screen and saw he was no longer connected. The words caught up in Naruto's head. **Sasuke. Drunk. Bar. Right. And huh orange?**

Alright, this was his opportunity, he would show Sasuke just how great Uzumaki Naruto was and blow him away. Naruto giggled a little when the word 'blow' associated itself with the word 'job' in his mind. Akamaru started whining when Naruto gazed into space with a leer on his face.

Kiba had said nothing orange, but just about everything he owned was orange. Naruto was very single-minded, if he liked something, he loved it and then became thoroughly obsessed with it. This was how he found himself rifling through Kiba's clothes, they were about the same size so he grabbed Kiba's blue shirt and black jacket. Naruto wore his own jeans though. If Kiba was anything like him he probably had a tendency to go commando when he was all out of fresh underwear. As students and members of the male gender this happened all too often. As much as he loved Kiba, he had no desire to be that close to him.

All dressed and ready to go, just one little detail.

* * *

Gaara opened his apartment door and managed to cross his arms over his chest in the same instant. He quirked an invisible eyebrow at the sight that greeted him. Naruto stood there trying to slip on a trainer onto his left foot while grinning awkwardly at him.

"Hey Gaara, erm I need a massive favour…" Naruto trailed off registering Gaara's less than forthcoming look.

Silence.

"Erm, yeah, so you remember I told you about Sasuke right?" Naruto proceeded to babble something about a TA; Gaara wasn't listening.

Silence. Nod. More silence.

"Well uh, I need to pick him up."

Silence.

"I would walk it, but he's a little out of it at the moment," Naruto managed to finish putting his shoes on and his voice was getting increasingly desperate.

Silence.

"Can I borrow your car?" Naruto blurted, finally cracking under the pressure of the silence.

Gaara considered this request. Naruto was a good friend; well he was the only friend that didn't flinch when Gaara spoke so that equated to good in Gaara's mind. The red head watched as Naruto started to look slightly constipated.

Gaara turned and took Temari's car keys. He didn't trust Naruto with his car but Temari's would do fine. Naruto grinned when Gaara handed them to him. Gaara sighed, sidestepped and turned to observe Naruto in a heap on the floor. "It's the red one parked directly outside," arms were crossed over his chest again.

Naruto hugged Gaara's leg, scrambled up, yelling his thanks as he took off running.

* * *

Naruto entered the bar and quickly scanned the area and saw no Sasuke. He spotted Kiba though. He walked over and nonchalantly leaned on the bar and whispered out the corner of his mouth, "well? Where is he?"

Kiba rolled his eyes at Naruto's show of coolness; he smirked and replied, "who?"

Naruto's look of indifference did a sharp turn and he spluttered "Sasuke! You know! Dark hair, really cute ass with an icicle stuck up it… wait; you don't what Sasuke looks like! Why'd you…" Naruto trailed off in confusion.

"Relax, idiot. He's sitting right next to you." Naruto turned, observed the passed out student slumped over the bar and waved his hand dismissively. "That's not Sasuke." He proceeded to prattle about how Sasuke would never be caught dead looking like that and sure they had the same hair colour but Sasuke had these weird spikes not those curly looking things.

Kiba eyes took on an odd sort of gleam. "Look closer."

Naruto squinted and his eyes widened comically. "What happened to him? What did you do to him? He's all..." Naruto was lost for words as he observed the disheveled student that was giving off quite the stench of alcohol. "How much alcohol did you give him?" Now Naruto was quite used to being drunk and passing out, but this was Sasuke. With the little Naruto had learnt about Sasuke he knew that the TA was not the type. "Is he breathing? Kiba you killed him!"

"No Naruto, he just had a little too much, well he only had a little but he couldn't really handle it."

Naruto wasn't listening he as he was too busy bemoaning the fate of his cock. He would never be having sex again. Kiba reached over and grabbed Naruto by the scruff and just shook him a little and then shook him even more as he noticed something "_Are those my clothes_?!"

"Kiba, you killed my boyfriend, my future bride, I think we have bigger problems to worry about," Naruto shot back dramatically while prying Kiba's fingers off the shirt.

Both jumped when Sasuke stirred and made a moaning sound and then went quiet again.

"You see? He's not dead," Kiba said a little triumphantly.

"Whatever Kiba, if it was the other way round, and this was you and Akamaru, I would never have let this happen," Naruto grinned after having detangled himself from Kiba and feeling it was safe to comment. He set about what to do with Sasuke. The blond poked him a little and no response. Sasuke was out cold. So he poked him a little more.

"Ah, I'll guess I'll take him home then? I don't know anyone that knows him…" Naruto trailed off a little uncertain on how to proceed with this situation.

"You do that, remember Naruto you owe me, and try not to molest him while he's out, that's pretty close to necrophilia," Kiba felt a little proud of himself for that one.

Naruto didn't respond as he was busy attempting to lift Sasuke up, who had turned into a pile of bricks. **Argh! For someone who looks so much like a chick he certainly doesn't weigh like one.** He hoisted Sasuke up and thought quite seriously about carrying him bridal style, until eventually heaving him up on his right shoulder securing him by wrapping his arms around the knees. He attempted to wave goodbye to Kiba who had been distracted by a customer but felt Sasuke slipping so settled for just leaving; Kiba would only tell him to make sure Akamaru was tucked in.

As Naruto walked out of the bar, one of the few students there wolf whistled which caused Naruto to grin and apparently an automatic reaction of reaching up and groping Sasuke's ass. **Right… necrophilia… wait till he's awake.**

* * *

Naruto had parked the car quite close to the bar so it wasn't too long until he was depositing Sasuke into the passenger side. This would have been simple enough if it wasn't for the fact that the brunet had decided that instead of being bricks, he'd be completely boneless. Although this would have been quite annoying, Naruto ever the optimist and opportunist saw the bright side in that he could now have an excuse to touch more of Sasuke, then he felt guilty and made an _effort_ to stop.

Having finally secured Sasuke he headed back to the apartment. The drive was quiet and uneventful, other than Sasuke occasionally flopping down onto Naruto's shoulder. The third time this happened Naruto left him there wrapping an arm around him and driving one-handed. He felt quite suave in this situation, though it would have been better had Sasuke been awake.

On arriving home, Sasuke did his little transformation from boneless to bricks and this was why Naruto was stumbling up the stairs. **God damned elevator **_**had**_** to be broken.** Sasuke this time was being carried bridal style; he had woken occasionally to mumble/moan/grunt and then lost consciousness again. Naruto sighed. **How sexy.** That was until Sasuke had curled into Naruto's body a bit more and clutched his shirt in a sweetly endearing way. Then Naruto was once again captivated by the slightly parted pink lips that were blowing warm puffs of air near his neck sending slight shivers down his spine.

Arriving at his door he shifted Sasuke in his arms and tried to open the door while still having both hands occupied. Sasuke was once again over the shoulder as Naruto fumbled with the keys. Finally entering the apartment Naruto laid him down on the couch and sat himself down on the coffee table next to it as he removed the TA's shoes. He gazed at the sleeping man and felt his heart give a thump of approval. So maybe it wasn't just The Dagger that liked Sasuke. Naruto had decided that if his cock wasn't willing to compromise then it would forever remain 'The Dagger'.

Sasuke's hair had somehow matted itself down around his face, Naruto reached over and moved it away so that he could get a better view and found that his hand had started caressing Sasuke's slightly flushed cheek. Naruto watched in a bemused fashion as his hand, which seemed to have developed a life of its own, moved to rub a thumb along Sasuke's bottom lip, then against the seam until it had worked its way inside the mouth. **Huh, so now my hand is betraying me? Or maybe The Dagger is slowing taking control… **

Naruto jumped when Sasuke moaned around the appendage and the blond quickly removed his hand. Sasuke seemed like the type to bite, and not in the good way either. Dark eyes opened and unfocusedly blearily gazed out at Naruto who was busy coming up with excuses as to why his hand was in Sasuke's mouth in case the TA decided now was the time to be lucid. Naruto opened his mouth to say said excuses but Sasuke had simply sighed and turned his back on Naruto.

Naruto felt a bit gloomy at this negative sign until he allowed his eyes to wonder over Sasuke's back where his once creaseless shirt had ridden up showing strong back muscles and more importantly the firmly muscled ass that was presented to him. **Must not grope. Must not grope. Must not grope.** Contrary to popular belief Naruto wasn't completely a pervert, he recognized groping an unconsciousness person was wrong, oh so very wrong.

To remove himself from the temptation, he figured it was time get on with all that coursework. He really couldn't afford to fall behind this side of the December exams. He gave a slightly wistful look at Sasuke and moved to his room where the computer was still on and the textbooks were still open. Looking at all his work reminded him that he still had Gaara's keys, as an excellent procrastinator, he saw the opportunity and headed back out of the apartment.

* * *

Gaara opened his apartment door yet again. People didn't visit the Sand siblings. They learnt to keep well away. So Gaara was a little annoyed (slightly homicidal) about the fact that he had to move away from the piece of art he was working on, leave his zone and answer the door. _Again._

Naruto stood there, _again._ With that grin that had some confused elements to it. However Gaara didn't analyze, he just watched.

"Hi Gaara! I just wanted to you know give back your keys!" Naruto came across slightly false and high-pitched when something was bothering him. Gaara wasn't one to evaluate this sort of thing because he didn't care. Too much.

Silence. He held his hand open.

Naruto deposited them and started thanking him. On and on he went.

Silence. Perhaps Gaara should say something. Naruto didn't usually babble _this much._ **Maybe he would like me to kill someone for him.**

Naruto had finished trying to fill in the silence. Now there was awkwardness.

"I will kill them for you" Gaara's voice held a quiet murderous quality.

Naruto's eyes widened. "Who? Ehehe Real funny Gaara…" With that Naruto clapped him on the shoulder before he could move away. Gaara's murderous instincts increased slightly with the bodily contact.

Naruto by then had already said goodbye and returned to his own apartment. Gaara shut his door. Having murderous thoughts awakened in his head he decided the next person to cause him to move and leave his zone would be at the very least maimed.

* * *

Sasuke woke as warm sunlight hit his eyelids and immediately regretted it. He was fairly certain that something had crawled inside his mouth and died there. With that pleasant thought the brunet struggled to sit up. This was too much movement for his stomach which immediately emptied its contents over his shirt. Sasuke grimaced, retched a little more and grimaced again. His next thought caused him to go into slight panic mode. **Where the fuck am I? **He moaned a little as his head swam when he tried to recall what had happened.

Sasuke looked around, there was no one around so having a bewildered facial expression was alright. He was in some stranger's living room. On some stranger's couch. Sasuke always kept his cool, however he had never been in this situation before and his panic mode that had elevated slightly now lowered again when he noticed all his clothes were still on, covered in his vomit yes, but still on. Having recovered his sense of smell, he discarded his shirt, and saw a horrible orange t shirt on the floor. **Now is not the time to be picky**. He pulled it on, it was slightly large on him but it would do.

He glanced at his watch. Half eight. He had a lecture to take at nine. Panic mode increased. The brunet located the exit to the apartment, and was half way out the door when he noticed his lack of shoes. Groaning more at his hangover than his stupidity he went back inside and scanned the room for his shoes. The living room was a complete mess, how he was supposed to find anything he didn't know. There were cable wires of remote controls tangled on the coffee table, there was a disturbingly large poster of a bowl of noodles on the far wall and there were remains of takeout food _everywhere_.

Spotting his shoes near the couch he grabbed them without putting them on and turned to leave when he was met with a large growling dog. Eyes widened in alarm slightly as Sasuke backed away. However the dog only sniffed at his T-shirt and set about licking his hand. Sasuke tried not to think of the dog slobber all over his hand and concentrated on moving. **Move. Move. Move.** He was paralyzed with fear. This dog had very large canines which scrapped against his skin as it licked.

Sasuke managed to escape when an alarm went off behind one of the closed doors and the dog bounded away to greet its owner. Breathing a sigh of relief, he left, once he'd managed to get outside the apartment he set about making himself presentable. He didn't have time to go home, and although his impeccable image was at stake he couldn't just give the lecture a miss. Recognizing the area wasn't too far from the university, Sasuke walked at a quick place while trying to collect memories of the night before.


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am in no way associated with the owner and no copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

* * *

Naruto fell out of bed when Kiba's alarm went off. Normally he would have marched into dog boy's room and ranted about how inconsiderate the brunet was but this time it was well suited as he had to get up too for his 9 o'clock. He heard the front door shut and found it odd Kiba hadn't waited for him so they could walk to university together.

The blond jumped up when he remembered last night. Sasuke was on his couch. _His_ couch. He had come to Sasuke's rescue in his time of (drunken) need and quite literally swept him off his feet. This was worth like one date, right? Grinning, he ran out of his room forgetting he was only in his boxer shorts to see how Sasuke was. **Maybe I can watch him sleep again.** As creepy as that sounds, Naruto really only had the best of intentions at heart.

Naruto looked around. There was no Sasuke. He looked around again, just in case he'd missed him; Sasuke was small. Nope. He went to the bathroom, without knocking (Naruto was a little desperate at this point). Kiba stood there, with his back to Naruto, in front of the toilet, rapidly pulling his pants up.

"_Naruto_!!" Kiba let loose quite the unmanly scream.

"_My eyes_! I'm blind. I'm blind!" Naruto backed away quickly, shielding his eyes as he stumbled. **Ew. Kiba butt. Ew. Kiba butt. Ewwwwww. **Momentarily forgetting his quest for Sasuke, Naruto's mind was occupied with visions of Kiba's rather naked ass. **Ugh. I know Kiba's hairy, but he's got a freaking forest growing down there. **

Kiba had slammed the door and could be heard cursing about senseless blonds that don't know how to knock, then see a _real_ man's ass and freak out.

Naruto's retaliation was to yell back the suggestion of waxing.

* * *

Naruto flopped back on the couch, Sasuke was officially MIA. He would have liked to hold Sasuke's shirt and sob into it, but that was unmanly and besides the bastard had thrown up all over it. That also led to thoughts of a half naked Sasuke walking the streets, which of course consequently led to thoughts of a completely naked Sasuke on his bed. That thought occupied Naruto for a while.

Kiba had thrown Sasuke's bag at him and was now sitting beside him. Naruto had forgotten to take it with him the night before. Naruto shifted his eyes to the right, and then to the left. No one was around. Akamaru was back to sleeping in Kiba's room and Kiba had left to pick up Hinata to walk with her. He grabbed Sasuke's bag. Well it wasn't really a bag, more like a satchel, those over the shoulder thingies. **Heh, another tick for the homo tribe column, sorry Sakura, but you are wrong about this one.** He rifled through it and was disappointed to find only text books and rolls of chart recordings. He looked for the secret pockets and found a tiny expensive looking iPod. **Well at least he listens to music, he can't be that stuck up.** Well now he had a hostage. Naruto grinned. Checked the time and saw he only had fifteen minutes to get dressed for his lecture given by his new favourite TA. Dressed in a black T shirt and orange cargo pants he legged it to the lecture.

Naruto got there early. He pouted until Sakura moved up a seat so he could have the aisle. "Sakura, these long legs get cramped down there" Sakura had rolled her eyes and given in quite easily; she seemed a bit preoccupied sending and receiving text messages. When Naruto had tried to peer over her shoulder she had snapped her phone shut, kicked his ankle and told him to pay attention to the professor.

Naruto was a little disappointed there was still no sign of Sasuke and that Professor Hatake was taking the lecture. He slouched down in this seat, crossed his arms and pouted more. **I'm sure he's okay.**

* * *

Sasuke's left eye was twitching. He was in the men's toilets next to where he was due to take a lecture in five minutes. He glared at the mirror and took in his appearance. Even though he had washed his face, gargled water and straightened his clothes he was still a sight for sore eyes. Sasuke wasn't one for vanity, but he had a certain amount of personal pride that refuted that statement. The orange T-shirt that he had pilfered from his would-be kidnapper(s?) wasn't very flattering. It had the effect of making him look washed out and the sickly pale look was not in fashion. The T-shirt wasn't dirty but it did give off a faint musky smell when he sniffed it. Sasuke didn't want to say it smelt good, because it didn't. He certainly didn't hold it closer than necessary.

Sasuke cringed when he ran his hand through his hair. His hair had met water or some sort of liquid at some point because instead of its usual spikes it had flattened down at the back and curled slightly towards the ends. Sasuke's famous dark eyes glared again at his reflection. **This is your fault.** He would have continued with this line of thought as Sasuke was prone to internal conversations; however he thought perhaps now was not the time for mutiny.

He collected himself. Posture stiff and walked out. His right eye began to twitch when having entered the lecture hall a few minutes late, the whispers from the girls and the sniggers from the boys reaching his ears. Sasuke's stride if possible became even stiffer as he approached the front. His eyes widened slightly when he noticed Kakashi was there. Taking the lecture. Kakashi was never there. At least never on time. Sasuke had grown accustomed to the fact that being Kakashi's TA meant being the professor. His mouth falling slightly open and the eyes widening (while continuing to twitch) made it seem as if Sasuke's usually unemotional face was having spasms.

"Ah, Sasuke…" Kakashi's only visible eye curved down in his semblance of a smile as he took in Sasuke's appearance. "A little late are we? Looks like someone had a rough night."

_**Late**_**?! I'm **_**late**_**?! Why I ought to…** Sasuke's train of thought went into less PG areas as he imagined removing the eye patch and stabbing whatever was hidden behind there. **With a blunt pencil,** Sasuke thought grimly.

Kakashi remained unruffled by the thoughts he could quite clearly see on his TA's face. "Sasuke, perhaps you would like to sit down so I can continue, I shall talk to you after the lecture is over, we don't want these students missing out on any information now do we?" Kakashi's tone wasn't condescending, but Sasuke chose to take it as. Stiffer than ever, he took a seat, not before he glanced up and saw the blond moron whose eyes were fixated on him. **Tch.**

* * *

When the lecture had finished Kakashi and made a swift exit, telling Sasuke he would talk to him in the lab later that day. Sasuke would have been irritated except the reminder of the lab caused him to panic slightly when he remembered he hadn't left his bag in the locker. He had taken it with him to the bar. **Right this is good, now what can we remember about the bar? **Sasuke's pompous inner self made the brunet want to hurt things. He was drawn out of his thoughts when he saw a flash of orange and black in his periphery and he tensed when an arm swung around his neck.

"Get off me Uzumaki," Sasuke's words were a little forced.

"Heh, its funny, out of all _three hundred_ students here, mine is the only name you seem to remember," was the husky reply. The blond chuckled in his ear sending shivers running up and down his spine.

Sasuke forcefully removed the arm adding more pressure than was needed and stalked towards the exit without looking back. He needed to head to the union bar and find his bag. He glanced down at himself, but first he would go home and change.

* * *

Naruto did a jig on the spot. The Uzumaki-deep-sexy-voice had worked again. Sasuke had been _so close_ to giving in to the sex god that was Uzumaki Naruto. His little high went down when he realised that Sasuke didn't remember any of last night. The TA would have at the very least demanded his bag before swooning into Naruto's arms for rescuing him. Naruto sighed; he had let Sasuke walk off, Sasuke who was wearing his favourite orange T shirt. Naruto grinned at the thought of Sasuke having to wear more of his clothes in the future.

Naruto was just thinking over options for Plan C when he felt something hard hit his head. Sakura stood there with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face.

"Ow, Sakura, you know one of these days you'll end up killing me with those fists of yours," Naruto whined, clutching his head, waiting for the pain to go away and peeking between his arms to see if Sakura was looking guilty or homicidal.

"_Naruto_," Sakura all but growled before she stomped over to take a look and see if she had caused any lasting damage. "And just why was Sasuke wearing _your_ ugly orange T-shirt and looking like a drowned rat?!"

"I didn't do anything to him! I swear!" A pink brow rose. Naruto gulped. "Ehehe, well you see Sakura there's reeeeeally long story behind it" Naruto grinned sheepishly, his arm coming up automatically rub at his neck. The pink eyebrow was still up. "Um… he got drunk, I carried him home, but I didn't molest him I swear!"

Sakura reached up got a hold of his left ear and dragged him towards the exit while saying in a oddly calm tone "You are going to buy me coffee, and then you are going to tell me _everything_"

"Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow," Naruto whimpered as he tried to keep with her pace. "Sakuuuuuraaaaa."

* * *

Sasuke arrived home. Now usually Sasuke had very little belief in the way of religion but right now he was praying to every and any deity that would hear his plea. **Don't let Itachi be home. Don't let Itachi be home. Don't let Itachi be home. **However apparently no one was listening or whoever was decided it was more fun to ignore him. Sasuke kept his composure calm as he registered Itachi sitting on the couch leafing through a newspaper.

"You know, little brother, when I offered to take you in, this wasn't quite the behaviour I expected," Itachi spoke smoothly without looking up from what he was reading. It seemed that whatever article Itachi seemed to be reading was far too important to put down to even glance up at Sasuke.

Sasuke tensed for the umpteenth time that morning, allowing the arrogant tone to wash over him as he concentrated on relaxing his hands that were curled up into fists. He was deeply tempted to walk over and _make_ Itachi look at him, but right now Itachi's aloof nature was in his favor as he turned, focused on not walking too fast and entered his own room.

* * *

Sasuke leaned against the shower wall; his head was throbbing from the hangover that had taken up residence in his mind. He needed some stress relief, a way to release all the tension that the morning had built up inside of him, that little scene with Itachi had been the perfect finish. Like any twenty something horny-but-in-denial-about-it guy his stress relief methods were fairly typical of the male species.

Sasuke contemplated the bar of soap in his hand, and then set it aside in favor of the shower gel. He squeezed a generous amount into an open palm; it smelt of strawberries. He bypassed all the foreplay, he didn't need to tease himself; he just needed those after-sex endorphins running through him. Sasuke set about the matter, just as he approached all work-related aspects of his life, quickly and efficiently.

He started with slow strokes to his cock, working them gradually up to fast-paced ones. Sasuke slid down to sit in a corner of the shower, spreading his legs a little and getting into a more comfortable position, hot water poured down at the side along his legs. He could feel the steam on his face which was nice, but the warm sensation on his cock was even better. As he urged his shaft to hardness he found himself almost… bored. He needed an image to work with.

Sasuke, though a dark, angsty loner at heart knew that sex was always, _always,_ better with two (or more). Drawing an image of a fantasy lover, Sasuke's mind pictured said person with his tongue licking at the underside of his cock between Sasuke's spread knees. In his mind, Sasuke saw his faceless partner reach up and stroke his nipple till it pebbled. Sasuke's body reacted to the image and while one of his hands returned to this time slowly pumping his member, the other reached up to fondle his left nipple. He pinched, and stroked it alternately then slipped his hand across his chest to do the same to the right.

Sasuke watched as his 'partner' took the head of his cock in his mouth and ever so gently sucked whilst allowing his teeth to graze slightly at the sensitive skin. Sasuke was so caught up in his delusional world that he almost let loose a moan.

Every now and then he added water to the lather forming on his cock so that eventually he was surrounded by strawberry scented bubbles.

He saw his fingers tighten in his lover's hair and the strokes grew faster as he began fucking the mouth by pushing and pulling the head away, feeling the strong satisfaction that came with control and dominance.

Sasuke fisted himself harder with thoughts of fucking that mouth, the feel of warm saliva around his member, imagining his lover's throat constricting as the gag reflex was triggered, and himself just shoving deeper, deeper, harder, harder and faster, faster.

It wasn't until he was almost coming that he realised that the hair he was gripping in his thoughts so tightly, was blond, and the eyes that were glaring up at him as he fucked that mouth, were blue and spitting fire. But by then he was too far gone to care that it was Uzumaki he was fantasizing about, besides the submissive position he was imagining Uzumaki in was giving him a disturbing amount of pleasure.

It also wasn't until he had to stuff a washcloth in his mouth to keep from screaming Uzumaki's name as he came that he started to worry about what this meant.

Sasuke sat there on the tiled floor, panting from his orgasm with the water running luke warm and his semen splattered over his stomach sending an oddly sickening mixture of sex and strawberries to his senses.

He hadn't come that hard in a long time, but the endorphins running through him were being cancelled out by his confusing thoughts of orange-clad idiots, with big mouths and bright blue eyes.

* * *

Itachi paused at the bathroom door, his impassive face held a faint hint of disgust at Sasuke's actions.

Allowing Sasuke to stay with him was more to ensure that he could control his little brother's wayward actions rather that to help with Sasuke's financial situation.

For Itachi, control was an important aspect of life. Especially control over another human being, it was almost like a drug to him. This isn't to say that he spent his days evilly plotting the demise of others around him. His obsession was slightly more centered on his younger brother.

His younger brother who was pursuing something he felt passionate about, who had earned an almost grudging respect from their father for pursuing said passion even without the financial support of their parents. While Itachi was involved in taking over the Uchiha Company instead of discovering what he could feel passion for.

Yes Itachi was a little bitter, but things would turn out his way in the end, they always did. One could not be the elder Uchiha heir without becoming accustomed to getting one's way.

A faint smirk replaced the disgust as Itachi contemplated leaving Sasuke to his own devices. Sasuke was unusually self sabotaging, and Itachi's kicks came from simply observing his self destruction.

* * *

Naruto rubbed at his ear, it was still sore as Sakura hadn't let go until they had reached a coffee shop that wasn't the cheap university one, but was one of those expensive ones that was way over in the city. After spending close to 2 hours telling her his ever so slightly embellished version of coming to Sasuke's rescue, he was now just watching her fiddle with her _third_ cup of coffee. **Why am I paying again?**

"Naruto… have you felt like you could be with someone that you weren't very attracted to?" Sakura started off quite randomly, "I mean someone who makes you feel good but not in the way you want them to, like they don't give you that butterfly feeling, do you know what I mean? Oh who am I kidding, of course you don't, your serious relationships haven't last more than 2 months," seeing the hurt look on Naruto's face she rambled on, "I don't mean that as a bad thing, because we're young and stuff and we need to experiment and see what's really out there…"

"Relax Sakura, I'm not offended," Naruto reassured her. He mulled over her question.

"So how ugly are we talking about?" he questioned with a grin on his face.

"Naruto!" Sakura reached over and smacked the side of his head. Naruto didn't dodge it, it would only result in a _much harder_ surprise attack later.

"Ah, okay, seriously? Even though, as you already said, I'm no expert, I think that if this person can see past your demented-ness, your man-bashing tendencies, and your bipolar-ness then you can accept that he's ug- , a bit…erm… un-pretty" Naruto amended.

"Lee isn't-" Sakura stopped herself and then registered Naruto's look of glee.

"I knew it! I knew ol' fuzzy-brows turned you on!" Naruto crowed. "It's the green isn't it? All that shiny black and green makes you weak in the knees. Oh Sakura, I think it's time we took you to therapy."

Sakura's eye was twitching and her face had turned red with anger. Then she appeared to calm down and Naruto thought he was in the clear until he felt her spiked heel digging into the front of his shoe. Naruto leapt up so quickly that his knee banged the table and he ended up a puddle of pain clutching his foot.

"You were saying Naruto?" Sakura smiled sweetly down at him.

Naruto was still howling in pain, earning quite a few disapproving glares. He quieted down when Sakura threatened his other foot and grumbled. His thoughts strayed to how suitable Lee and Sakura would be as a couple. Lee had quite the gay streak, so that would satisfy her unhealthy lust for the 'mos, and he was obviously very dedicated to her, so Naruto doubted he would ever leave her; win-win for everyone.

Sakura was still huffing so Naruto set about placating her, "Sakura, Lee would be very good for you, way better than that cold-blooded Neji, plus his hair isn't longer than yours!" He beamed, and she grinned back a little hesitantly.

Naruto glanced at his watch, and jumped up, once again banging his knee. "Shit Sakura, I have to go, I've got a meeting with Professor Hakate about an internship in his lab this summer, you got yours with Tsunade right…?" Naruto trailed off thinking about the woman's huge breasts.

Shaking his head, he grinned at Sakura, "Go make lurve to those eyebrows, and run into the sunset afterwards." He took off running before Sakura could react.

* * *

Sasuke having successfully avoided Itachi when leaving the apartment, returned to his mission of finding that damn bag. That bag with his chart recordings and one of the very few expensive items he owned these days, his iPod.

Arriving at the bar, he didn't see any sign of the spiky haired brunette that he remembered had served him, but he did see another spiky haired brunette sporting a pony tail. He approached the bored looking man behind the bar and asked in a very abrupt tone

"I left a bag here the last night, brown leather satchel about this big" He indicated the length and width with his hands.

The guy gave Sasuke an uninterested look and shrugged, "Haven't seen it."

"Well could you ask one of your colleagues? Or check the lost and found box?" Sasuke asked impatiently

"Tch, so troublesome," the bartender muttered and turned to have a quick check behind the bar, "nope, nothing."

Sasuke was getting considerably frustrated with this guy's lack of cooperation. Today was just not his day. At the periphery of his thoughts lurked Uzumaki, with that stupid grin of his. Apparently Sasuke's inner voice had decided to incorporate Uzumaki's face with its thoughts. Sasuke was very close to reaching over, grabbing the bartender by the scruff and demanding he stop fucking with him and give back his bag.

The pony tailed guy seeing the look on Sasuke's face, made a snarky comment about hot-headed students, rolled his eyes and made his way to the other end of the bar to start serving the early drinkers.

Sasuke kicked the bar stool, all his pent up tension had returned full blast. He turned on his heel and headed out. He needed to talk to Kakashi about the possibility of repeating the experiment that had taken over a week to complete. At the prospect of all that work, any average student would have burst into tears, Sasuke however pushed it aside. He hadn't come all this way by being average.


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am in no way associated with the owner and no copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

* * *

Kakashi arrived at his office; he had been in the park, enjoying the wind in his hair while reading an old favourite book, until he remembered he had an appointment with one of his lovely students, of course that had been quite a few hours ago.

Said student was sitting in front of his door, asleep. **How cute.** Kakashi peered closer at him; the blond was quite easy on the eyes. **Now what was his name?** Kakashi nudged him with his foot and the blond's head lolled to rest on the doorframe. Kakashi shrugged and opened his door, causing the blond to fall backwards and be startled awake.

Kakashi went to his desk and seated himself in one swift movement, smiling as he observed the student looking around in confusion.

"Ah, I'm sorry for being late; I was performing the Heimlich on a cat," Kakashi said in all seriousness, it was after all a very good excuse. The student blinked suspiciously at him. "Well, why don't we get down to business…?" Kakashi trailed off waiting for the name

"Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto," the student answered cheerily.

"Ah yes, Naruto, you wanted to be part of my lab for this upcoming summer, why don't you tell me your reasons for this," Kakashi said pleasantly, his mask was getting a tad bit itchy.

Naruto seemed to burst into life; he started explaining how interesting he found working in the labs, how it was such a vital part of the scientific community. Kakashi wasn't paying too much attention, he had already pulled up Naruto's grades on the computer while Naruto chattered on, and they seemed to be up to par.

Kakashi was hoping this wouldn't go on for too long, the new Icha Icha series was calling out to him. Usually Kakashi didn't listen to the voices of inanimate objects, but the voice belonging to the Icha Icha series seemed to have some sort of hold over him. Naruto was making hand gestures now; he probably wouldn't notice the appearance of the green book. Besides green was a camouflage colour. With his reasoning sound, Kakashi reached inside his jacket for his precious book and promptly buried his nose in it. **Ah my true love, how I missed thee. **

Kakashi become aware of the silence about 5 minutes later, when Naruto broke it with, "Professor Hatake…?"

"Hmm? Ah yes, please do contin-" he was cut off as his favourite PhD student knocked curtly on the door and entered without waiting.

There was a little something off about Sasuke today, he seemed a little less put together than usual, and his hair was messy. Kakashi personally thought Sasuke overdid everything, so it was a pleasant surprise to see Sasuke so caught off guard as Naruto's presence seemed to have quite the effect on him.

Sasuke was busy alternatively staring in shock and glaring at Naruto, while Naruto if possible seemed to become even cheerier and grinned quite hard at everything and nothing in particular.

Although this was all very interesting, Kakashi saw the opportunity to continue reading, after all it would do Sasuke some good to have some social interaction.

Registering that Sasuke seemed to be talking to him in a very tightly controlled manner, Kakashi looked up and smiled agreeably, "Ah Sasuke, have you met Naruto here? He will be working with us in the summer, why don't you go show him around the labs?" Kakashi wouldn't be a genius if he didn't know how to kill two birds with one stone.

"But Kakashi, I have to talk to you about the chart recordings for-" Sasuke began; he seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack. **Odd. **

"Ah Sasuke, that can always wait till later, I have some, ah, paperwork to finish now." Kakashi dismissed them; it was always fun to play with Sasuke's nerves. His cute student still hadn't figured out how much more there was to life than chart recordings.

Sasuke didn't seem to be leaving, he didn't look too happy and he appeared to have developed a tick in his eye. Naruto was glancing back and forth between them, starting to look a bit uncertain.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!"

There was a burst of green and Kakashi would have liked to say it all faded to black, however when he opened his eye, Maito Gai was still standing there proudly with his hands on his hips. "KAKASHI my rival! Your new book is the youthful colour of green, it is beautiful to see one connecting with the youth of today," Gai would babble on for a while, so Kakashi went back to reading.

Kakashi looked up when Gai started yelling something about rock paper scissors to see Sasuke grab Naruto by the back of his collar pulling him out the door.** Ah perhaps Sasuke can learn to make nice and become friends. **

"Hmm? What were you saying Gai?" Kakashi asked indifferently.

"My rival! You are so cool, pretending you weren't listening to me!" Gai proclaimed and lapsed back into a speech about the youthfulness of the day. Kakashi sighed.

* * *

Sasuke was dragging Naruto by the collar down the corridor. Naruto was getting tired of being dragged around today. He had feet; he knew perfectly well how to walk. Besides Sasuke was walking too fast for Naruto to be able to enjoy the skin to skin contact.

"Sasuke…? Sasuke! SASUKE!" Naruto attempted to get the attention of the TA.

Sasuke turned around, walked right up into Naruto's personal space and said in a very quiet, clipped tone, "Uzumaki, I do not have time for your idiotic tendencies, I've already wasted half of the day looking for Kakashi. We are going to the lab. You are going to look, nod and then leave me the hell alone." Sasuke was breathing quite heavily and his dark eyes were glaring right into Naruto's blue ones.

Naruto was a bit too preoccupied with Sasuke's close proximity to protest and he found himself nodding dumbly. Of course when Sasuke's mouth was no longer in kissing distance, it didn't take Naruto too long to come to his senses.

"Well, it looks like someone had a rough night," Naruto began, easing into the Uzumaki Sex voice.

Sasuke turned around sharply. He gave Naruto a guarded look, then thinking better of it went back to walking ahead. Sasuke spent the rest of the time in silence, despite Naruto dropping hints of the night before, alcohol and hangovers. **Oh maybe I'm being too subtle?** Naruto grinned to himself at that thought. **I can be subtle. **

When they arrived at the lab, Sasuke walked in and proceeded to introduce the machines and equipment almost as if they were his only friends.

Naruto was getting irritated with Sasuke's more than professional manner, he wanted to tell Sasuke about rescuing him, he wanted to tell Sasuke about still having his bag, and he wanted to tell Sasuke to just relax, he'd never seen someone so high-strung. Naruto zoned out for a bit when he thought about the methods he could use to 'relax' Sasuke.

When he came to, Sasuke was coolly looking at him with that stupid eyebrow raised.

"Look Sasuke, about last night, you see, you were at the union bar, and you got drunk and my friend Kiba, you might remember him, he's about this tall, with spiky brown hair, not spiky like yours though, different, erm yeah, anyway, he called me, and told me you were there, because he's the bartender and you seemed to have passed out, and I came over and picked you up in Gaara's car, he lives across the hall from me, he's really nice, you'd like him, anyway I took you home and you slept on my couch…" Naruto got a bit carried away and started rambling and gesturing when that stupid eyebrow was still raised and Sasuke was looking at him as though he were deranged.

"Where's my bag Uzumaki?" Sasuke broke through Naruto's ramblings in a low tone that held a hint of murderous quality.

"What? That's it? No thank you?!" Naruto was fuming. "Where's my T-shirt?!" Naruto retaliated back.

"Uzumaki…" Sasuke started to respond with a faint sneer across his face.

"Oh that is it." Naruto, well, sort of snapped. He shoved Sasuke up against the lab "My name is Naruto. Na-ru-to," he breathed into Sasuke's ear, "and you need to learn how to say thank you properly." With that he leaned back and covered Sasuke's mouth with his own.

* * *

Sasuke didn't register the kiss in his mind until a little while later, probably because it was more Naruto smashing his mouth against his, rather than an actual kiss. The 'kiss' was bruising and dry.

Naruto still had his body pressed intimately against Sasuke's, pushing Sasuke to lean backwards against the lab bench. Sasuke kept his mouth closed despite the blond attempting to gain entry with nips to his bottom lip. A knee had been shoved between his legs and it was all Sasuke could do to stop himself from grinding against the blond's thigh.

Sasuke however could differentiate between fantasy and reality, which is why he wasn't responding to Naruto's rather forceful manner. Naruto leaned back and licked his dry lips, Sasuke followed the pink tongue peeking out, but when Naruto leaned back in for a second attempt Sasuke shoved him, quite hard.

Having created some distance between them, Sasuke straightened, and brushed himself down. He glanced at Naruto who had managed to catch himself from falling and glared.

"_Uzumaki,_" he stressed the use of Naruto's last name, "if you _ever_ touch me like that again, I will break-"

Sasuke was cut off as he saw the grin on Naruto's face. "_Sasuke,_" Naruto murmured as he once again put himself in Sasuke's personal space. Naruto's lips were now millimetres from his own where he could feel the warm breath. "For someone who doesn't want to be touched, you're sporting quite the boner" Naruto's hand came to rest on his hip, stroking it through the fabric, while moving slowly towards Sasuke's ass.

Sasuke kept face though; he resisted the urge to move into Naruto's hard body and continued to express his mind's displeasure by glaring. His eyes narrowed as he felt the direction in which Naruto's very forward hand was moving.

"I'll make you a deal, _Sasuke,_" Naruto's lips were moving against his ear, "you go out on one date with me, and I'll return your bag." Sasuke's head snapped up at the mention of his bag, he'd managed to completely forget about it in the past 5 minutes.

Sasuke brought his hands up to Naruto's chest, placed them square, and once again pushed hard.

"You need to resort to holding someone's personal belongings hostage in order to get a date?" he said scornfully.

"No, that only applies to getting a date with you," Naruto smirked. "Well?"

Sasuke hated losing. He could feel bile rising up in his throat at the very thought of it. "Fine," he snapped, "_one_ date."

Naruto was grinning at him, it almost made Sasuke soften to see the moron so stupidly happy.

"Meet outside the lab, tomorrow at seven. Don't be late," Sasuke ground out, with any luck he could just spend the evening doing work and get the blond to make coffee runs. Before Naruto could reply, Sasuke walked quickly and exited the lab ignoring Naruto yelling out his name.

* * *

Naruto was skipping. This was quite the sight to see, 180 pound, 6ft something blond Adonis dressed in a black T-shirt and hideously bright orange cargo pants skipping along the street like a 5 year-old girl. Needless to say his spirits were rather high. Naruto would have liked to start singing 'I'm singing in the rain' but it wasn't raining, plus sometimes his voice reached levels that only dogs could hear, the last time that had happened Akamaru had to be taken to the vet.

**The Dagger's gonna get some lurvin', oh yeah! Oh The Dagger's gonna get some lurvin', oh yeah! Yes, The Dagger's gonna get some lurvin ohhhhhhhh yeah! **He sang internally instead.

Naruto continued prancing along as he thought of what had just happened only a half hour ago. He had kissed Sasuke, he had managed to stroke that smooth pale skin and hold that body against his. It hadn't felt as right as he thought it would have, but it was close.

Granted Sasuke hadn't had a very enthusiastic response to Naruto's advances, but Naruto knew lust when he saw it, besides Sasuke could have pushed him away a lot sooner, only he didn't. If that wasn't a sign for 'come ravish me in the stables and make haystack love' he didn't know what was. Yes, Naruto had medieval setting fantasies, but who doesn't? The internal singing stopped when he thought about Sasuke in a pair of breeches.

Naruto arrived back at the apartment and entered with a flourish, "Honey, I'm home!"

"Hello Naruto," was the shy somewhat strained response from Hinata who was sitting on the couch, attempting to prevent Akamaru from licking her face.

Naruto beamed. He liked Hinata, she was so sweet and innocent, what she was doing with Kiba he had no clue. He looked around and saw no Kiba. "Where's lover boy?" he asked flopping down on the couch next to her.

There was no response as Akamaru seemed to be winning the battle. Hinata eventually gave in, giggling slightly as Akamaru happily licked to his heart's content.

Naruto watched her with a contented smile on his face. Hinata was one of nicest people he knew. She had the type of personality that brought out every macho male's must-protect-damsel-in-distress side. This was no different with Naruto, even if her weird pale grey eyes did freak him at first.

"Kiba's in his room changing again for our date," Hinata managed to gasp between giggles at Akamaru's attentions. Naruto took a proper look at her and wolf whistled. Hinata was dressed in a pale grey knee length satin dress, displaying a modest amount of cleavage. Said dress was being pawed at by Akamaru, Naruto took action immediately. He leapt up and hauled a whining Akamaru off her.

Akamaru gave him a reproachful look, Naruto glared back. "You should know better Akamaru, we all know Hinata would look better without a dress, but you have to learn to control yourself."

"Naruto!" came the shocked reply from Hinata who had taken blushing to an extreme and had turned a beet red. Naruto smiled sheepishly at her.

"Hey, why are we waiting for Kiba to get dressed? Shouldn't it be the other way round?"

Kiba saved Hinata from having to answer that as he emerged from his room, not looking as dressed as expected. His white shirt was open, a tie was thrown around his neck, his belt was looped but not buckled, and only his left foot was sock clad. He'd also tried to do something to his hair, in that now instead of spikes, it was lying flat against his scalp looking incredibly shiny.

There was a shocked silence all round, Akamaru had hidden behind the couch, paws over his eyes emitting a distressed whining sound.

"I need help…" Kiba broke the silence, his eyes held a panic quality to them. It was at this moment Naruto burst into laughter.

"Oh…man…what have you done… to your… hair?" Naruto gasped out between bouts of laughter, eventually doubling over. Even Hinata started giggling a bit.

Kiba scowled. "I did exactly what it said on the label!" he retorted indignantly. He had as well, but he had also followed the instructions of 5 different hair products.

Naruto had managed to stop laughing, though his eyes still sparkled with mirth and his mouth had formed a very infuriating smirk.

"Kiba, we can always cancel, I'm sure Neji and Father won't mind if I just say I'm not feeling well…" Hinata trailed off looking uncertain and guilty.

"Really? I mean, no! No, Hinata, baby, I promised didn't I?" Kiba's hope was squashed immediately as he saw his soft skinned girlfriend's face flush with guilt. He walked, well rushed over, and enveloped her in a hug.

They were going to a very posh restaurant for dinner with Neji, _and_ Hinata's father. Hinata's father who was very similar to Neji and who probably wanted to castrate him as well. Kiba gulped as his thoughts turned to what two Neji clones could do to him. **No, Hinata won't let that happen, yeah, Hinata will protect me.** His arms tightened around her.

He was momentarily blinded by the flash of a camera and saw Naruto smiling wickedly. Kiba let go of Hinata and made a mad dash for Naruto and that camera that he was waving around tauntingly.

He chased Naruto around the apartment, yelling obscenities, until he remembered Hinata was around and switched from saying things such as, "Naruto, if you don't give me that camera now I'm going to shove it so far up your ass you'll be shitting film for a week" to using words such as 'oh fudge!' and 'sugar!'

Hinata was giggling helplessly in the background with Akamaru barking along. Things settled down when Kiba managed to tackle Naruto to the floor before using his far superior, manly strength to wrench the camera away. It had nothing to do with the fact that Naruto was incapacitated with laughter from seeing Kiba's hair up close.

Kiba was having a mental breakdown. Neji scared the crap out of him, and what was Naruto doing? Naruto was babbling on about Sasuke and how he had conned him into a date. Kiba glared at Naruto who was now happily filling Hinata in, when she had asked who Sasuke was.

"So, lover boy gives me his stupid advice and tells me that I have to sta-" Kiba registering what Naruto was about to say, covered his mouth and dragged him off the couch whilst whispering in Naruto's ear, "say another word and die."

Out loud he said, "Naruto's gonna help me find something decent to wear," in what he hoped was a casual tone and with that dragged Naruto off to his room leaving a slightly confused Hinata and an Akamaru who saw the opportunity to continue licking.

* * *

When they had emerged from the room, Kiba was looking much better. Naruto after explaining to Kiba that looking like an evil villain wasn't going to leave a good impression on Hinata's family had convinced Kiba to wash out his hair.

Naruto smiled at his handy work. Kiba was dressed in a black suit with a cream shirt and dark red tie. His hair was tidier than usual, the spikes a little tamer. It had been easy to handle Kiba after he had retreated into his own mind due to all the stress and panic. The only words after that from Kiba had been, "castrate," "Hinata," and "Neji clones."

Naruto had given Kiba some leverage, no one knew Neji was gay, and more than likely his uncle wouldn't be happy with that knowledge. Kiba had almost kissed Naruto for that information; it had been a strain on their friendship when Naruto had run out screaming.

Naruto watched as Hinata straightened Kiba's tie, reassuring him that he looked fine, and that he would do fine. Kiba's hands came to rest on Hinata's waist and he smiled at her. Naruto suddenly felt like an intruder on this personal moment, and shifted uncomfortably.

Naruto glanced up from his position on the couch when Hinata came to stand in front of him. She seemed to be struggling with herself.

"Na-Naruto, s-sometimes we try to force things because we want them so badly. What you are doing with Sasuke is wrong, he should want to go on a date with you, and you shouldn't have to force him." Hinata's voice became steadier as her conviction strengthened. "You deserve someone who can love you."

Naruto watched her with wide eyes. "You should return Sasuke's bag and show him what a wonderful person you really are." With that, she went over to an equally wide-eyed Kiba and took his hand, "And _you_ will be fine. Father may not love you, but I do."

Naruto didn't notice when they left as his mind was still trying to understand Hinata's words. The high he had felt just a few hours ago had left him completely, he felt drained, tired, and he finally admitted to himself; he felt lonely.

* * *

Sasuke was rubbing at his lips and sulking. Well he wasn't sulking or pouting or any other stupid, girly-assed thing, he was just annoyed. His mind flashed back to the incident in the lab. _"Na-ru-to,"_ he shifted awkwardly in this seat remembering that hot breath in his ear, on his neck.

Sasuke was at his computer station on the floor above the lab. He was meant to have been typing up his latest publication, but all he had managed to do was rewrite the title, a few dozen times.

He sighed. That damn idiot had managed to get under his skin, and his morning activities didn't help with keeping the moron out of his thoughts. **How dare he coerce me into a date? **

"Ah, Sasuke if you keep sighing, tutting, and shifting like that, it makes it difficult for other people to concentrate," Kakashi's relaxed voice reached him. Kakashi was lounging on the couch of the common room reading porn.

Sasuke chose not to respond, though his thoughts raged with how much concentration exactly was required to look at _porn._ Figuring thoughts of Naruto were at least better than getting worked up over how unprofessional his employer was, Sasuke returned to his inner turmoil.

"So… how did Naruto like the lab?" Kakashi's seemingly innocent question caused Sasuke to sit up a little straighter.

"Fine." He couldn't ignore a direct question.

"He seems nice, don't you think?" Kakashi ventured once more, not taking his eyes off his novel.

"Yes," was the curt reply. Sasuke was still looking straight ahead.

"He'll be working with us for 4 months, I was thinking of assigning him to you." Sasuke swivelled around in his chair to face him and shot Kakashi a look. Kakashi was still reading, his eye curving downwards in his semblance of a smile, or a leer, one could never really tell.

Kakashi and Sasuke did not have conversations, which is why Sasuke knew that Kakashi knew something. He directed another look at Kakashi and turned back to his desk.

He was drawn back into the memory of Naruto's body trapping him against the lab bench, he didn't want to say it excited him, but it was hard to deny when an immediate erection had made itself known. Sasuke pushed the thoughts aside, thinking it was just his pent up hormones reacting to a warm body.

"Perhaps I should hire him as a part time lab assistant," Kakashi's voice floated into his musings.

Sasuke grit his teeth, "How do you know about what happened?" Kakashi, Sasuke had long ago figured out, was omnipotent. He was always there when Sasuke didn't need him.

"Know about what Sasuke?" Kakashi turned a page and his cheeks turned a faint pink at its contents.

"If you say anything, I'll tell Gai there's a floor above the lab." Sasuke wasn't fooled, he knew Kakashi was hiding something.

"Ah fortunately, or unfortunately as the case may be, there really is no one to say anything to," Kakashi said, letting the threat slide.

There was an uneasy silence following that statement. Neither made an effort to break it, and it continued for hours until Sasuke noticed that at some point Kakashi had left.


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am in no way associated with the owner and no copyright infringement is intended.  
**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

* * *

Naruto was pacing. It was the middle of the night and Naruto was pacing. He walked from the kitchen to the couch and back with Akamaru who was trailing behind. Kiba had come back hours ago, in a traumatised, zombie like state and had refused to say anything; he was now snoring in his room. The snoring was interrupting Naruto and Akamaru's pacing, so every now and again Naruto would glower at Kiba's door.

Naruto was pacing because he'd seen other people do it when they had problems, they'd become restless, itchy and made hand gestures. He had tried to explain to Akamaru that this pacing thing needed to be done alone, but apparently Akamaru had problems of his own, so Naruto let it slide.

It's safe to say that Naruto couldn't sleep; he had been going over Hinata's words, over and over until he felt dizzy. He had a dilemma. If he gave Sasuke's bag back, he could kiss the date goodbye. If he didn't give the bag back, he'd get the date, but it wouldn't be like a proper date, Sasuke wouldn't give in so easily. **To give back the bag or not to give back the bag, that is the question.** Naruto put on his thinking face, tapped a finger against his chin and glanced at the ceiling in a thoughtful manner. There was no answer; neither God nor Shakespeare could help him.

"_What you are doing with Sasuke is wrong." _Naruto scowled at Hinata's words. **It's not that wrong, how else am I supposed to get a date with the ice prick?!** Naruto had also decided that all this issue crap was Sasuke's fault, it didn't matter how much The Dagger wanted him, Sasuke was taking over Naruto's brain, and Naruto didn't like it.

"_You deserve someone who can love you."_ Well if there were getting into the idea of love, then he could count Sasuke out. Sasuke probably knew less about love than Naruto did. Naruto sighed wistfully at his idea of love. Naruto had decided long ago that he would know if he fell in love if he was willing to share his ramen with the person. Naruto could not see a greater love than that. So far no one had met that criterion.

But Sasuke had let Naruto kiss him, that had to count for something. Sasuke had got a hard on, no one gets a hard on that quickly without some force of attraction. Naruto looked down,** great; just thinking about the bastard gives **_**me**_** a hard on. **He glared down at The Dagger. **I am problem solving here! Most of this is your fault, GO AWAY! **The Dagger held its own end of the argument, staying hard and proud. **Don't make me take a cold shower, because I will!** Naruto threatened. No change. Naruto pulled out the big guns and called up the image of Kiba's butt. The Dagger had met it's match, and retreated. Naruto snickered.

* * *

Gaara opened the apartment door. It was 3am. That didn't matter to him because he didn't sleep, but still no one expects visitors at 3am. Naruto stood there grinning at him with that dog of theirs behind him. Gaara's arms were crossed over his chest and took in Naruto's orange and black striped pyjamas and his weird looking nightcap. Gaara would have liked to sigh and simply close the door in Naruto's face. He couldn't however, Temari would find out.

Gaara continued to look impassively at Naruto, silently hoping he would just disappear. Naruto took that as a sign that Gaara had spaced out and waved his hand in front of his face. "Hellooooooooo, anybody hooooooooome?" Naruto sing-songed.

Gaara stepped aside, there was no avoiding this. Gaara was under explicit orders from his therapist to participate in human social interaction. This could all be very well ignored, except the therapist had passed on the orders to Temari, who, psychotic sibling that she was, thought the best way to carry out these instructions was to tell Naruto. Naruto, who made almost daily visits. Gaara had made several mental notes to kill his therapist, but so far had only managed to paint his death. He was getting close though.

Naruto was lounging on the couch, arms supporting his head, legs crossed and talking about something. Gaara wasn't listening because he was watching 'The Dog'. He was engaged in a staring contest with it. The Dog cocked its head to the side as if sizing Gaara up. **I will get you. **Gaara thought at it, he knew The Dog knew what he was thinking.

Gaara had it in for Akamaru, because Akamaru was prone to barking just when Gaara was about to fall asleep. Sleep came rarely to Gaara because he was all troubled and stuff, so he valued and treasured it.

The Dog came closer. Gaara narrowed his eyes. Naruto was still talking, but Gaara had completely zoned him out, it seemed to get easier to do every time. The Dog cocked its head to the other side, and moved by Gaara to bound onto Naruto.

"Hey, Gaara, what do you think I should do?" Naruto asked, turning pleading eyes on him.

Silence. Gaara directed an impassive stare at Naruto.

"Gaara?" Naruto sat up, "Were you listening?"

"No." He looked at The Dog. "I will now." Gaara sat down on the couch, keeping a good distance from Akamaru.

Naruto beamed. He spoke at break neck speed and great length, Gaara managed to get the gist of his problem with this 'Sasuke'.

"So?" The pleading eyes were back, Naruto seemed to be under the impression that Gaara had all the answers. He wasn't wrong.

"Kill him." Was Gaara's firm response. If this Sasuke couldn't love Naruto, then there was something wrong with him, and he did not deserve to live.

Naruto looked a bit shocked. "Eh heh heh, Gaara, he's not that bad, he's just…" Naruto trailed off looking confused.

"Return the bag then." Gaara hoped this would wrap up soon.

"But..." Naruto began

"Keep the bag then." Gaara _really_ hoped this would wrap up soon.

"But…" Naruto was silenced with a look from Gaara.

"You know what the right thing is Naruto." Gaara could not believe he was saying this. "Listen to what your heart says." Gaara was irritated now; he was being forced to talk, was quoting Temari's favourite soap opera, and had Naruto looking at him like he was crazy. Not to mention that dog was only a few feet away - perfect killing distance.

"Wow…"

Before Gaara registered what was happening, he had been hit with the 'Uzumaki Surprise Attack'.

"Where's Gaara?! What have you done to him?!" Naruto was sitting on him, shaking his shoulders. Gaara was not amused. Naruto was heavy.

Gaara didn't want to talk anymore, so he simply stared at Naruto until he got uncomfortable enough and extracted himself.

Naruto grinned at him, "Sorry Gaara, had to check, thanks for listening, I'll let you get back to…" Naruto looked around. "What do you do in the middle of the night?" he asked a little nervously.

Gaara continued with his staring, no more words were going to be forced out of him.

"Erm, I guess I'll leave you alone now, come on Akamaru, thanks again Gaara!"

Gaara's eyes travelled to the dog. **I will get you** he reiterated in his mind.

When they left, Gaara was looking intently at the door his murderous thoughts now concentrated on Akamaru instead of his therapist.

* * *

Sasuke had had trouble sleeping that night too, for different reasons. When he had arrived home after his passive-aggressive conversation with Kakashi, he had had a very uncomfortable dinner with Itachi. Itachi's comments about his appearance in that arrogant tone, had led to some more fist clenching and repressed anger. Itachi's complete disregard for Sasuke's presence at the dinner table served to only frustrate Sasuke more.

He had eventually fallen asleep after jerking off, perfectly aware he was thinking of the blond moron this time. Sasuke would have felt more shame/confusion/annoyance at his body's betrayal except, it had felt so good, and there hadn't been much time to contemplate his problem before sleep arrived.

The day hadn't started off much better either. He had skipped breakfast to get out of the tension filled kitchen occupied with an Itachi who was calmly watching him. Sasuke had had a million and one things to do and Kakashi hadn't helped.

Kakashi, because he was such a wonderful caring person had told Gai that Sasuke was "not his usual youthful self" today. This meant that Sasuke had missed out on lunch as well because he'd spent his time hiding in various places. Gai was very persistent, determined to make sure he cheered Sasuke up, returning him to his youthful glowing self. Gai had enlisted the help of one of his students; Rock Lee. Sasuke's unemotional face had cracked when he had found out that there were two of them.

Sasuke hadn't managed to give Naruto more than a second thought all day and he was grateful to how busy he had been. However currently, Sasuke was watching the clock, with a mixture of anticipation and dread, an uncommon, conflicting combination of feelings. It was ten to seven. He had ten minutes. Ten minutes to do what exactly, he didn't know.

That one student, the one that always manages to cock up the entire experiment half way through was having a breakdown as their _third _piece of guinea-pig gut tissue seemed to give up and die on them. Sasuke tore his eyes away from the clock. He had volunteered to stay behind and help the hopeless case because he was going to have to wait for Naruto anyway. Sasuke exhaled and went over.

"It's fine… Oh, for heaven's sake don't cry. Borrow one of the other student's results; I'll let the professor know. I'll clean up, just… just leave," Sasuke snapped at the watery eyed first year.

By the time he had managed to get her to leave, and cleared up the ridiculous amount of spills she had created he was ten minutes late. He was hungry, his clothes were a mess after a day of hiding in random closets, and more importantly he was late. He hated being late, for anything.

Sasuke left his belongings back in his locker in the lab and made his way outside still dressed in his lab coat, glasses perched on his nose. He nodded to the security guard as he exited the building and looked around for Naruto.

Sasuke saw Naruto with his back to him sitting on the steps. Long legs stretched out in front of him, wearing dark blue jeans and a black shirt. The clasp of a necklace glinted up at Sasuke in the moonlight as he drank in Naruto's smooth tanned neck, with the sprinkling of fine baby hairs growing there.

As though sensing he was being watched Naruto turned his head, and seeing Sasuke jumped up, breaking the spell and smiled nervously at him.

"Look Sasuke, here's your bag," Naruto thrust it into his arms and Sasuke stared at it in confusion. "I don't want to force you into doing anything you don't wa-"

"_Uzumaki,_ I have had a very long and stressful day. I am tired, and I am very very hungry. You are going to buy me dinner, and I am going to eat," Sasuke interrupted quickly, he didn't know why, he chalked it up to his low glucose levels.

Naruto stared open mouthed and then suddenly smirked when he understood what Sasuke was saying. He wrapped his arm around Sasuke. "I knew you couldn't resist me," Naruto waggled his eyebrows for an added effect.

Sasuke gritted his teeth and removed the offending arm. "This isn't a date." He needed to make sure Naruto understood this. "I'm just hungry, let's go," he said shortly, walking on ahead.

* * *

Naruto was trying to keep up with the fast pace that Sasuke was setting. Trying to think, well mentally pat himself on the back, and keep up was proving to be difficult. **I have the longer legs, this shouldn't be physically possible. **He grumbled internally.

He had no idea where Sasuke was taking them, they had gone through so many twists and turns into random alleys, that he'd given up trying to keep track after 23 lefts, and 25 rights. Naruto had been quite tempted to just grab Sasuke, push him up against the dirty brick wall of one of the random alleys regardless of the homeless man watching, but Sasuke was a slippery one. So far no physical contact had been made, Sasuke seemed to have a sixth sense about when Naruto was going to reach out for him, and would quicken his pace leaving Naruto grasping at air. It was frustrating for Naruto to say the least.

Walking at this pace seemed to also mean that Naruto's smooth conversational skills had been put on hold and so far the only sounds had been Naruto cursing when he tripped, and Sasuke's alternative use of the words 'idiot' and 'moron' every time that happened.

Naruto had thought it odd that Sasuke was still dressed in his lab coat but didn't comment; he had developed quite kinky fantasies of Sasuke wearing _only_ that lab coat and those dark rimmed glasses. Scientific education had taken on a whole new meaning for him and he wasn't one to question a good thing. When Naruto snapped out of his 'Scientific education' fantasy Sasuke had walked off and was about ten yards away, glaring and tapping his foot to a regular rhythm, not even noticing that his trouser leg was becoming soaked in rain water. Oddly enough, it was still an attractive site. Naruto jogged up to join him.

"Can't you slow down a little bit?" Naruto complained, stalling.

"No," was the stern simple reply, as Sasuke turned on his heel and went back to walking.

Naruto was prepared this time and managed to snag Sasuke's sleeve. Sasuke was caught unaware and the momentum drove him straight into Naruto's happily awaiting arms. Naruto could scheme just as well as the next person. Sasuke's face was squashed into Naruto's chest and his arms were being supported by Naruto's flailing in the air helplessly. It wasn't exactly the romantic swooning into strong muscular arms Naruto had envisioned, but it would do.

Sasuke attempted to correct himself, with a great amount of hindrance from Naruto. They ended up with Naruto's arms trapping Sasuke, holding him in place with Sasuke glaring and Naruto grinning.

"You're quite clumsy Sasuke," Naruto leaned down breathing in his ear, "that icicle up your butt must make it difficult to steer." Naruto felt Sasuke stiffen and struggle to get loose.

"Tch, how many time do I have to tell you _Uzu-_" Sasuke was cut off when Naruto's lips descending on his also effectively cutting off his air supply.

The kiss was less forceful than last time. Naruto moved his lips against Sasuke's going from harsh to soft, ending with a lick to Sasuke's top lip.

"How many times do I have to tell you _Sasuke_? My name is Naruto." Naruto ended the kiss when he felt Sasuke stiffen further and there was no responding movement from Sasuke's mouth. Naruto sighed internally, all he wanted was a little bit of reciprocation; he just _knew_ that pursuing this wasn't a lost cause.

Sasuke was giving that glare again, Naruto loosened his hold and allowed him to slip free, he watched Sasuke turn his back on him again and Naruto felt a little pain in his chest, it couldn't have been the ramen this time.

* * *

Sasuke, for his part felt as though an internal war was being waged in his mind. There was one part sneering at him asking if he was such a little whore with no self control whatsoever. The other part, which he assumed to be the whore part, was asking him why they weren't fucking in the rain water puddle in the dingy alley; did he need to remind Sasuke that the last time they had been laid was when they were 16? Sasuke settled for the part that was adamantly telling him that they were lost and to just stop walking for a second and get their fucking bearings.

Sasuke turned to see Naruto still standing where he had left him, looking a little lost. His stomach chose to make itself known at that point and he felt the overproduction of acid rise.

"Let's go Naruto, I don't have all day," Sasuke gave in, he just needed to eat, he could think clearly then. **There's a big hunk of man meat right over there, why don't we eat that?** Sasuke-whore whined at him. **Semen **_**is**_** meant to be nutritious.** Sasuke-ice prince mused. Sasuke growled at the two idiots he seemed to share his brain with and gave control to Sasuke-navigator.

Naruto hearing the use of his first name, seemed to take that as a sign from the heavens, went over to him and succeeded in putting his arm around Sasuke again. Sasuke-whore delighted in the physical contact and Sasuke-ice prince tsk-ed at him.

Sasuke closed his eyes, took a deep breath, visualised the restaurant he wanted, saw it in his mind's eye, viewed the path to food and certainly did not concentrate all his energy on the warm weight of that arm, or the length of the body pressed up against it. He definitely did not wish that the body was naked and that his greedy fingers could run all over that tanned skin that was begging to be touched, stroked, pinched and twisted.

"So where are we going?" Naruto asked cheerfully.

Sasuke calmly removed the arm, shoved his hands, which were starting to itch with need, into his lab coat pockets and replied simply with, "food". He had finally recalled the directions to the only Chinese restaurant that he trusted not to give him salmonella poisoning.

They walked again in silence, at a slower pace this time, Sasuke-navigator didn't want to get lost again, and he'd massacre the other two if he did. Sasuke watched Naruto out of the corner of this eye, who seemed to be caught up in his own thoughts and was nervously fidgeting.

* * *

Naruto gawked at the restaurant that Sasuke had had his heart set on. It was a small place and it seemed to be stuffed with loner angsty students, most of who were eating on their own, with laptops and other work materials out. It screamed dark troubled emo. Naruto and his blond hair were not welcome here.

Naruto was rooted to the spot as Sasuke requested a table for two from the very tattooed waiter and was handed menus. He watched Sasuke follow the waiter and only snapped out of it when Sasuke turned and gave him a questioning look.

They were seated out of the way near the back. The walls were painted a deep blood red with a few Chinese style paintings hanging from them. The tables and chairs were of made of some deep dark red wood, generally the whole place seemed to have a blood theme and it gave Naruto the creeps. He sat down as directed, managing to tip over and catch the vase of orchids, the centre piece of the table. Sasuke just gave him a look that let him know just how moronic he thought Naruto was.

Naruto peered at Sasuke over his menu; his glasses were now pushed up into his hair, holding his long bangs back giving Naruto a clear view, of those dark ebony eyes fringed with long equally dark eyelashes. **I wonder if he wears mascara, that dark smouldering look can't be natural. **Naruto voiced that thought from behind the protection of his menu and only received another, what he now termed 'are you a complete moron?' look from Sasuke.

Sasuke returned to his menu and when the waiter arrived ordered some complicated dish pronounced perfectly. Then the waiter and Sasuke turned to Naruto for his order.

Naruto gave his biggest grin. "Do you have any ramen?" he asked hopefully.

The waiter looked a little patronizingly at Naruto (who was convinced he was being discriminated against because of his luscious blond locks) "Only what there is on the menu."

"Oh." Naruto went back to the menu sticking the tip of his tongue out as he looked at the dishes which all had silly sounding names. Where was the simple 'chow mein'? The waiter started to tap his pen against his pad of paper.

Naruto ended up ordering by closing his eyes and picking whatever dish his finger landed on. He had heard that penises of various animals were a Chinese delicacy. Naruto really hoped whatever he got was nice, normal and not penisy. He stuck his tongue out at the waiter when he left.

During the time it took for the food to arrive Naruto busied himself prying information out of Sasuke. All subjects seemed to be touchy; Sasuke's family was apparently a no-go area, as were his likes and dislikes. Sasuke just seemed to enjoy doing the opposite of what Naruto wanted. So now they were sitting there in an awkward silence when their food arrived.

Sasuke appeared to be a man on a mission to get as much food into him as possible. Naruto, feeling the weight of the silence had proceeded to shove food (he avoided the meaty looking bits and ate the rice) into his mouth also, barely tasting it, after all it's not like it was ramen. Eventually, a competition had developed, and both were eating as fast as humanly possible, glancing up now and again to glare at the other. Naruto glared because his attempts at footsie were being thwarted, and Sasuke glared because that's what Sasuke does.

The meal had finished and Sasuke had signalled for the bill, whilst scrunching up his nose in disgust at Naruto's less than pleasant burp. When the waiter arrived, Naruto produced his frog wallet, waiting for Sasuke to protest about paying, or at least offer to go halves. Sasuke merely gave him a cool look and Naruto handed over the cash internally moaning at how anorexic his frog friend's appearance had become.

They made their way outside the restaurant into the cool night air, with Sasuke leading. Naruto in his rare moments of non pervy reflections saw how Sasuke's pale skin seemed to almost glow, his movements were elegant and that Sasuke was a walking, breathing piece of art.

"Hey, hey! So what do you wanna do now?" Naruto's musings didn't last long and he was eager to spend more time with Sasuke, even if it was awkward silence, it was _comfortable_ awkward silence in Naruto's mind.

"We do nothing, I'm going back to the lab; I have work to finish," Sasuke barely turned to reply.

"Okay, erm I'll come with you." Naruto matched Sasuke's pace, smiling at him.

Sasuke stopped abruptly, and turned to face him. "Look Naruto, this, us, I am not interested," Sasuke said in a calm careful monotone.

"Bu-" Naruto was confused now, he knew Sasuke had been playing hard to get, but this was going a little overboard.

"Even if I were interested, TA's are not meant to date their students, I am not willing to jeopardise my career over something this trivial," Sasuke's tone hadn't changed; it was almost like he was reading out of a text book.

Naruto was silent as the words sunk in. Sasuke turned to leave, leaving Naruto behind again, presenting his back again, and still all Naruto wanted to do was to reach out to him.


	7. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am in no way associated with the owner and no copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

* * *

Naruto was surrounded by boobs. On his left shoulder he had Sakura's small pert ones. On his right shoulder he had Hinata's large squishy ones. His dilemma today was trying to decide which ones he liked best. They say the bigger the better, but Naruto was torn. Yes Hinata's you could smother yourself in forever and ever and die a happy man. However Sakura's had their own charm, small enough to grab in one hand and just squeeeeze. She probably had pink nipples to match that hair.

A fist smashing into the top of his head dragged him out of his dilemma. "Naruto! Stop drooling! Were you even listening to us?" Sakura asked in a tightly controlled tone.

Naruto of course didn't hear any of this because Sakura's violent tendencies had finally shown their true purpose. He was now nestled face first into Hinata's breasts, who, no doubt, was red as a tomato. Naruto felt he deserved to be in heaven, so he got comfortable.

Another bash to the head, "Stop molesting Hinata!" and just like that heaven had been taken away.

"You're just mad because I chose Hinata's over yours," Naruto mumbled under his breath, rubbing at his head. Sakura had excellent aim and managed to always get the same spot _every single time_. Luckily Sakura didn't hear that last comment and went back to giving her love advice, which was quite good since she was quite apt at sticking to the gay ones.

They were sitting on the couch of Naruto's apartment, eating ice cream and trying to pry information out of Naruto about his date with Sasuke. Naruto was having none of it though. He wasn't going to sit here and talk about his 'feelings', all he had wanted was to get hammered but Kiba had ruined his plans. As soon as he had figured out vaguely what had happened, he'd called in the girls and then run away. Huh, some best friend, abandoning me like that, wait… he gave me Hinata as well; maybe he wants to share the joy of her boobs with me. OH KIBA I DO LOVE YOU.He was sure that somewhere out there Kiba could hear his internal declaration of platonic love.

Sakura had also brought her new boyfriend, Lee, with her. It hadn't taken long for them to become an item, all Sakura really had to do was smile at Lee and he had redoubled his efforts in winning her heart. Naruto had sufficiently been distracted from his problem when he had seen Lee up close. Thick lower eyelashes on a dude were now on his list of things that freaked him out.

Lee reappeared after in the doorway having completed his 100 laps around the block. He had accidentally stubbed Sakura's toe and had declared that he would make up for it in the punishment of running. After he had left Naruto had asked Sakura why she hadn't stopped him. She had only sighed and said if she had protested he'd probably end up doing a thousand, it was best to leave him to it.

"Naruto, my Professor, Maito Gai taught me that to return our youth to shining brightness, we must train, to keep us full of youthful energy! For that is our hard-working student way!" Lee stood proudly in the doorway, without a drop of sweat on him, looking really _green. _It seemed that his form of punishment and cheering up someone were one and the same.

Naruto took all of Lee in and winced. The guy ran around in a green spandex one piece, and it outlined everything. Everything. Lee smiled encouragingly at him, and Naruto found it difficult not to smile back.

"Lee, Naruto doesn't need exercise, what he needs is to talk about his _feelings._" Sakura was putting her foot down about this issue. "Though, you are getting a little chubby around the edges there," Sakura smirked.

"These are pecs," Naruto emphasised that by rubbing said pecs. **Ooh that felt good**. "And these are wash board abs." Naruto lifted up his T shirt. "Wash board abs, this is Sakura," Naruto introduced them.

"Hmph. Talk about your _feelings_ Naruto, not your tan-wrinkled body."

Naruto glanced at Hinata who was still blushing, though not quite as much, for help. She gave a helpless shrug, and voiced her agreement with Sakura.

"Listen you guys, I'm fine, really. It's The Dagger you all should be concerned about, he's the one that got shot down, not me," Naruto summed up his best, brightest grin and sat back on the sofa, legs spread slightly apart, almost as if he expected them to start lavishing attention on 'The Dagger' (Lee very much excluded).

"Naruto, please stop referring to your penis as a separate entity, it's not funny anymore, it wasn't funny the first place!" There was no responding fist to his head to compliment the statement from Sakura; instead she held her fist above The Dagger in warning.

Naruto's eyes became very large, and his hands moved to protect his most precious asset.

"Na-Naruto, why don't you tell us what happened? W-we can help," Hinata spoke up, her hands folded in her lap, looking at Naruto with concerned eyes.

Naruto sighed; they really wouldn't leave him alone, he couldn't even enjoy the boobs anymore. "I am really stinky." He sniffed under his armpit, scrunched up his nose. "Ugh, yeah real smelly. I should really shower, you guys had better leave; I don't know how you can stand it." Naruto stood up, with three pairs of eyes trained on him. Even Lee and Hinata looked sceptical. "Seriously! You wanna smell this?" He held his arm pit out to Sakura who looked the most suspicious.

Sakura stood up, grabbed the arm, and in one smooth amazing movement, twisted it round and knocked Naruto face down to the floor. "Fine. Get rid of us. I will be coming back, I'll bring Ino next time and Gaara's sister seems nice too," Sakura said in her deceptively sweet voice.

Naruto shuddered at the thought of the other blondes. Both were scary in their own individual ways. He watched from his position on the floor as they prepared to leave. Hinata was protesting about leaving the dirty dishes, and Sakura was trying not to scold Lee for having started press ups beside Naruto, keeping him company, filling in Naruto about his wonderful professor and all that he had taught Lee. They did eventually leave and Naruto still hadn't moved from his position on the floor. It was comfortable there.

It was a few hours later that Kiba came home and found Naruto half asleep on the floor.

* * *

Sasuke peered over his glasses at the rest of the class, there was no sign of Naruto, there hadn't been for a week. **Good.** He assured himself, he didn't need the distraction. Not that Naruto was that much of distraction, he just didn't need it. He had finished giving the lecture and found Kakashi leaning against the door frame of the exit, once again engrossed in porn. Sasuke observed Kakashi's relaxed position, one eye half lidded, the other covered. His eye seemed to be reading; still Sasuke knew better, Kakashi was well aware of everything in his surroundings.

Sasuke was thinking about all this because he was trying to come up with escape tactics. He wasn't in the mood for Kakashi. Sasuke didn't want, nor need, Kakashi's unwelcome 'parental' advice. Though how parental was it really to tell him that bondage should be a healthy part of a sex life he didn't know.

"That was an interesting lecture, was that on the syllabus?" Sasuke paused on his way to the back exit mid-sneak. It was worth a shot.

"If you saw the lecture, why didn't you take it yourself?" Sasuke snapped. He didn't often lose his temper, but Kakashi enjoyed tormenting him.

"Mmm, it's more fun this way" Kakashi replied unconcernedly. Kakashi's real reason for allowing Sasuke to take his lectures were in hopes that Sasuke would learn more people skills, (and so that he could sleep in late) all it had seemed to do was add to Sasuke's already superior attitude.

"So, tell me about the date with the cute blond," Kakashi snapped his book shut and gave Sasuke his full attention. It was a little unnerving to have that one half open eye trained on him. **I swear, if he mentions my sex life, I will scream. **

"Did you manage to fulfil that task I set you at the beginning of the year?" When Kakashi had first met Sasuke, he had set him an assignment: to get laid. Kakashi thought the answer to all of Sasuke's problems were a good, hard, fucking. Sasuke hadn't been put off by the professor's odd quirks, Hatake Kakashi, was an incredibly gifted genius, and he could learn much from him. So far all Sasuke had learnt was that Kakashi liked porn, and was always late, probably due to the porn.

"There was no date, not that it's any of your business, but I don't date the students." Sasuke retorted, looking around for other escape routes.

"Ah, I don't see why not, you're a student yourself. Was the cute blond not man enough for you Sasuke?" Kakashi's eye curved down, he seemed to be smiling.

"His name is Naruto," Sasuke managed to grind out, "and you hired me as the TA."

"But you're still a student Sasuke; maybe it's a bit too much for you," Kakashi opened his book again, flipping to the marked page.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "My brother is expecting me home." He trusted that would end the conversation.

"Mmm." was the only reply Sasuke received, he wasn't sure if it was to what he said, or to the porn. Sasuke shrugged; at this point he didn't really care.

"Remember Sasuke, sex is also a good form of exercise, and always use protection." Sasuke stopped once again in his tracks and turned to see that Kakashi had disappeared. He really hoped the voices in his head hadn't decided to speak in Kakashi's voice; he had more than his share of problems already.

* * *

Itachi watched Sasuke pick at his food restlessly. It seemed his little brother was having difficulty upholding the calm collected demeanour that was the trademark of an Uchiha. Sasuke was a little off mark lately and maybe now was the time to introduce his proposal to Father. He observed the dark hair, the pale almost white skin so much like his own, and thought better of it. Sasuke had a little way yet to go, timing needed to be a little more perfect.

The silence in the apartment was never uncomfortable for Itachi. He enjoyed it in fact. Playing mind games with Sasuke was an interesting method of taking his mind off other pressing matters in the company. Itachi continued to observe Sasuke, he could see him tense even further as the time stretched on, and the food was pushed around the plate.

"If you would prefer, little brother, you can prepare your own meal," Itachi placed a faint sneer on his face and his eyes glinted as Sasuke stiffened and as expected ate more of the steak that Itachi had deliberately asked for to be extra rare. He wasn't bloodthirsty but he did enjoy seeing the lips that were so much like his to take on that luscious red hue. It added to his satisfaction that Sasuke didn't share his taste for undercooked meat.

Itachi took a sip of his wine. Studying Sasuke and his recent actions, it had been quite easy to come to the conclusion of what was bothering the younger Uchiha. Sasuke could be heard stifling his moans late at night; it seemed to be the only way he could sleep afterwards. He had been more forthcoming to Itachi's 'comments' and 'suggestions'. There was obviously someone who had shaken up Sasuke's repressed little world, and during the day Sasuke was trying to stifle these effects. However, during the night, things appeared to be a little different. Yes, Itachi enjoyed watching his brother grow and mold, it was like the unfolding of a dramatic poorly acted soap opera.

* * *

Naruto sighed and pushed a hand through his hair, he came across a snag, yanked quite hard and whimpered in pain. He was sitting in the medic library occupying an entire table and becoming increasingly frustrated. Naruto had fallen a little behind on his work. He had lectures to write up, lab reports due and a few essays as well. They were fast approaching December, which meant Christmas, which meant revising during all of Christmas for the January exams. **Who's bright idea was it to set exams after Christmas? **

The pressure had slowly been building up, and it wasn't until he was in a severely panicked state that he noticed it.

Naruto was currently attempting to write an essay for Professor Hatake's class, but was completely at a loss as to where to start. 'T-cells are MHC class restricted' **Well no shit, do they just want me to write 'yes' 2000 times?** Naruto sulked. All the work had so far managed to keep his mind off Sasuke, who's dark cold eyes always seemed to be just on the edge of all his thoughts. Naruto was determined to a fault, but sometimes even he had to admit defeat. Yes, he could have done a lot of things differently, but if he were to go back and do it all again, he'd still kiss Sasuke and land in this stupid mess all over again. Naruto required repeats of the same lesson till he fully understood. He wanted things to go his way, to his ideal, and there was really no reason why it shouldn't have.

He hadn't expected rejection to hurt so much, he didn't even know why it hurt so much, because all he had felt for Sasuke was physical attraction, and _maybe_ something a little deeper that that. It didn't matter now, since Sasuke was so set on his pansy ass being alone. Even The Dagger had understood that now was the time for staying low, and not inflicting more discomfort on poor Naruto, though sometimes it forgot, which wasn't very helpful.

**I ate rice that touched animal penises for him and he comes up with some lame 'I don't date students' crap. Animal penises for god's sake! **Naruto had decided that in the very unlikely event that his thoughts did stray to Sasuke and his girly eyes he would rant about him and ignore the little twinges in his general heart area. **He thinks he's too good for me, the king sex god of **_**all**_** sex gods, Uzumaki Naruto. What is he, blind?!** Overcompensation was also a tool Naruto had taken to using.

He squinted at the piles of books he had accumulated; they all had pretty much the same title, some were exactly the same except different editions. Naruto didn't often use the help of textbooks, finding the internet easier, simpler, and of course the wonderful Wikipedia, but he thought that holing up in the library might help his extremely short attention span. The library was nice and boring in itself, so didn't cause much of a distraction; it was just so damn quiet that every sound seemed amplified. He could hear the music of the student on the table over, the tapping of the pencil from just about everyone, it was unnerving but they had it synchronized and he could discern a beat. He received a glare though when his foot started tapping to the rhythm.

Naruto huffed, and went back to his essay, it was due tomorrow and at the moment his grades couldn't afford for him to hand it in late. He managed to immerse himself in typing up his essay on the laptop Kiba didn't know he had 'borrowed', drowning out the loud surrounding noise and entered the small corner of his mind that actually enjoyed learning this crap.

This is why he didn't notice Sakura stomp over until she slapped him across the side of his head as a greeting before seating herself opposite him, green eyes spitting fire and a pretty pink mouth twisted into a harsh line.

"I needed those brain cells!" Naruto yelled, getting shushed simultaneously by his fellow library buddies.

"I needed those brain cells," Naruto said again, in a loud whisper, his fellow library buddies didn't seem too impressed, but they graciously let it slide.

"What for? You've hardly attended any lectures," Sakura shot back in a harsh whisper, her green eyes unrelenting.

"Yeah, I've just been busy…" Naruto went back to typing; hoping Sakura wouldn't notice that he was just randomly pressing the keys. "I'm busy now." He felt some shuffling around under the table and saw that Sakura was trying to kick him, except her legs were too short. He patted the table and promised it he'd bring it some leaves later.

"Naruto, you can't keep skipping the lectures, it's been a month now, and you've missed 12 lectures, that's almost half the course." Sakura gave up on her kicking and settled for crossing her arms on the table.

"I'd be fine if you just let me copy your lecture notes," Naruto pouted, still pressing keys randomly, he'd been successfully avoiding this conversation for a while now, but now his luck seemed to have given up on him.

"You know I won't do that, you need to attend the lecture yourself to properly understand the material," Sakura hissed, fidgeting with the need to hit something.

"So how's Lee? Did he go up a grade in his kung-fu competition?" Naruto was trying a different tact, smiling conversationally. Sakura hiked up an eyebrow at this transparent plot to distract her attention, Naruto had never been one for subtly.

"Lee is fine, he is under strict orders not to hand in anymore of your assignments to Sasuke," Sakura smirked as Naruto's conversational smile slipped at having his genius plan fail, but she felt guilty when at the mention of Sasuke's name a hardness entered Naruto's usually warm blue eyes.

"I really am busy…" Naruto gave her a pleading look, and he went back to furiously typing at the keyboard.

"We have a lecture tomorrow, it's a revision one doing a bit of recap, come to that, we need to collect the other essay anyway," Sakura returned the pleading look, letting her eyes water, and her lip quiver. "Please Naruto…"

Naruto sighed, "Oh okay, you twisted my arm." He smiled brightly at her, having no intention of going. "Uh, so have you done the essay for tomorrow?" He looked hopeful.

"Yes, and no you can't see it." Sakura having successfully gotten the answer she wanted stood up to leave. She picked out a not-so-heavy looking textbook and hefted it. p/

"Make… sure… you… are… there…or…I… will… make… you… train… with… Lee." She punctuated each word with a light smack of the textbook to Naruto's head, alternating to his shoulders when he raised his arms in protection. She smiled pleasantly at Naruto's fellow library buddies and made her exit.

**Drama queen.** Naruto decided he would invest in a helmet. He mouthed a sorry to his fellow library buddies and start erasing all the gibberish he'd written in place of actual words.

* * *

When Naruto arrived home, he found Neji lounging on the couch, looking quite relaxed and satisfied. He was greeted with a twitch of colourless lips and a cool once over. Naruto had never really talked to Neji before, despite him being Sakura's ex-boyfriend, and sharing a few of the same classes. Naruto put it firmly down to the fact that Neji's eyes were just plain scary, regardless of the fact that Hinata had the same ones; Hinata was an exception. Neji was seen at the apartment quite a lot these days accompanying Hinata on her dates with Kiba.

Naruto didn't really do awkward silences so dropped his pile of books and Kiba's laptop on the coffee table, kicked off his shoes and sat down next to Neji with a "What's shakin," and a bright grin pasted across his face.

"Nothing is 'shaking'," Neji replied monotonously. This time an awkward silence did settle. It would have lasted for a quite a while too if Naruto hadn't started whistling and looking up at the ceiling. Except for the fact that Naruto didn't know how to whistle. He puckered his lips in the right shape and just puffed out air hoping for some sort of sound, Naruto gave up after about 10 minutes and kept glancing at Neji in a furtive way.

Neji was really pretty. He had dark, almost black hair, and pale skin, **not as pale as Sasuke's though.** His body was lithe and the faint outline of slim muscles could be seen in certain places in Neji's dark suit. His jaw was broad and his nose aristocratic. The long silky hair tied at the nape finished off the look. If it wasn't for the freaky looking eyes that were looking straight back at Naruto as he now openly stared, Naruto would have been appreciative of the eye candy.

"Sorry, Neji we didn't have any tea…" Kiba emerged from the kitchen wringing his hands looking a little distraught.

Neji nodded, and more silence passed with Kiba standing there awkwardly looking as if the strain was all too much for him. Naruto budged up on the couch, leaning up against Neji to make room for Kiba. The three sat there in even more silence.

"What are we doing?" Naruto whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

"Hinata's in the bathroom, we're going to watch a film," Kiba whispered back.

Neji turned to stare at them, as if he honestly couldn't believe these two idiots didn't think he could hear them.

"What's with the chaperone _again?_" Naruto continued whispering, cocking his head towards Neji.

Kiba didn't reply, he was looking past Naruto, gulping, and didn't seem to be able to look away, like an animal paralysed with fear.

Naruto shrugged, wiggled for more room on the couch, turned to face Neji and tried to engage him in conversation.

"So have you done the essay for tomorrow? Because I have!" Naruto beamed, very clearly pleased with himself.

"Yes, I completed the assignment the date it was set."

"Oh, right, that's good." **Nerd.** Naruto wriggled around some more, Kiba and Neji still seemed to be having their staring contest, a little one-sided since Kiba couldn't look away if he tried.

Hinata emerged from the bathroom, looking significantly less distraught than Kiba, but still nervous. She was pushing her two index fingers together, once again gathering courage to voice something.

"N-Neji, i-it's n-nice t-to b-e spen-spending s-so much time with you," Hinata was stuttering at her worst, "b-b-but i-it's n-not ne-neces-sary." She pushed her hands firmly down to her sides, only for them to hold onto the side of her skirt in a tight grip.

All three men were staring at her with varying degrees of shock and surprise. Kiba looked like his eyes were going to fall out; his mouth had already fallen open. Naruto was beaming encouragingly at Hinata giving her the thumbs up and nodding his head vigorously. There wasn't much difference in Neji's face unless one looked very closely. Light eyes tightened around the edges, thin lips appeared even thinner, and his neck muscles became rigid.

"Well, Hinata that is really neither here nor there, it is not your decision," Neji spoke seemingly unruffled by Hinata's announcement, though none of his rigidity left him. Hinata's head bowed down, with her eyes trained on the floor, her hands clutching her dress with more distress now.

Naruto nudged Kiba, giving him a meaningful look, and indicating Hinata with abrupt movements of his head. "Huh…?" Kiba look a little bewildered. Naruto had to contain himself from doing Kiba's job and pouncing on Neji with his Ultimate Uzumaki die-villain-die attack. He squinted his eyes in what he hoped was a more significant manner and indicated Hinata again. "Oh… oh! Yeah!"

Kiba leapt up from his squashed position, and went to stand by Hinata, boldly taking her hand and squeezing. She looked up at him adoringly. Naruto sighed and smiled, this was all so sweet, just like in the movies, and he really wanted popcorn now.

"I agree with Hinata," Kiba said formally, his back a little too straight and his grip on Hinata's hand looking a little painful.

Neji's pale grey eyes observed Kiba and Hinata, standing strong, united, etc. He stood, directed a look at Hinata who shifted closer to Kiba, and strode towards the apartment door without a backward look. The door was closed carefully without a sound.

Naruto had his knees up on the couch watching as Neji left, he turned around to when he heard a thunk to find Kiba had fainted.


	8. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am in no way associated with the owner and no copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

* * *

Naruto was back to being his sneaky self, although he wasn't stalking Sasuke this time around, quite the opposite. He had even decided to wear some more muted army colours. He hadn't gone as far as to slick grease across his cheeks, forehead and nose; well he had actually but some intervention from Kiba had him looking a little less like a deranged soldier on the escape and more like your average citizen.

Naruto had a mission to achieve; he had to hand in his essay without running into a) Sasuke and b) Sakura. This seemed to be a fairly simple concept except for the problem that Professor Hatake, whom he needed to hand the essay into directly rather than into Sasuke, was nowhere to be found.

He had glimpsed Sasuke in the common room that the Life Science professors shared having a one-sided conversation with one of the students and he had back-pedalled quickly. He ignored his heart thumping a little too loudly; indigestion and running around all over the place was doing funny things to it.

So once again he was camped outside the grey-haired professor's office, flicking his phone open and closed to check the time, and something to occupy his hands with. Every time he heard the tap tap of shoes on the vinyl floor the blond jumped slightly, several times dropping the phone in his hands. The time was now 9:50, he had been waiting for almost an hour and there was only 10 minutes left until he missed the deadline. This was really irritating for Naruto as he had the essay complete, rewriting work from several textbooks took quite a lot of effort but he had completed it and now he was being sabotaged.

When he had turned up at Lee's door earlier that morning, he had received a sad shake of the head. Sakura had left explicit instructions to the bushy-browed enthusiast. Lee was not to hand in the paper and was to get Naruto to class on time. So after Lee's profuse apologising of having his hands tied, that the promises of true love could never ever be broken, Naruto had been tackled.

The strength of the 'Amazing Smooth Moves' Uzumaki had been pit against Lee of the Fuzzy Eyebrows. The battle had been fought long and hard, both putting their all into the fight, fighting for their beliefs. Naruto had found it difficult to lay a hand on Lee, not because he was incredibly fast with amazing agility, it was more due to the fact that Lee had recently come back from his morning workout. He was sweaty in his spandex outfit; Naruto felt it was in his best interest not to touch any of the appendages that moved around in that green abomination. Lee had managed to lay several hits on Naruto though, apologising as he did so, claiming that it was for the greater good.

Naruto had admitted defeat and waved his white flag. This was done by running and hiding. Lee had chased but had had to give up after failing to see the blond crouching low in some bushes.

Once again looking anxiously at his phone, Naruto leapt up and decided to have another look for the elusive professor in the labs. He ran quickly, his much crumpled essay clutched in hands and backpack swung over one arm. On arriving he found it empty. Frustration building up led to him slamming his fist into the nearest bench.

"Mmm, well someone has a temper," a thoughtful voice came seemingly out of nowhere. Naruto swung around looking for the source but the lab remained empty. He really hoped he wasn't going crazy, there were enough things to worry about without adding insanity to the list.

"Ah, Naruto right?" The voice of who Naruto was now convinced was God spoke again. Finally thinking outside the box, he looked upwards to feel the full effect of God's words. Only to find that Professor Hatake stood there on a platform above the lab, leaning on a glass barrier, watching him with amusement.

"Professor Hatake!! I have my essay!!" Naruto yelled out, waving the papers in the air.

"Mm, so I see, why don't you come up? I'd like to have a word with you also," the professor's voice took on a more serious tone. Naruto looked around for a way up, considering climbing as now he had less than 5 minutes to go.

"Just through the door over there, the stairs will take you up," murmured the grey-haired man from behind an orange book.

Looking around at his new surroundings he saw a few desks with computers and the usual clutter of books and paper associated with them, a sofa against one wall. Professor Hatake now stood with one elbow supporting him on the glass barrier, the other arm holding his novel as close as possible to his face; he seemed to be a little short-sighted.

Naruto proudly presented his essay, his mission complete, no Sasuke, no Sakura and he had defeated Lee. Now all there was left to do was to do it all in reverse.

"Take a seat Naruto; I'd like to talk to you about your attendance." The grey-haired man snapped the book shut and trained his one eye on Naruto's bewildered ones. This was university; no one noticed attendance in a class of three hundred.

The lazy stance remained as the professor spoke in a similar tone, "I am aware that you have not been attending class for some time and have been handing in assignments late. Are there any mitigating circumstances that perhaps the university should know of?"

Naruto shook his head in reply.

"Well then can you explain your absence?" The professor looked stern now and Naruto hardly thought the reply of 'I came onto the TA and got shot down' would cut it. He urged his brain to think fast but was cut off before he could come up with a suitable answer.

"Unless you show a significant amount of improvement I'm afraid I'll have to reconsider you for the internship this summer." Naruto's eyes grew very wide at this final statement.

"But! I-" Naruto rose up from his seat ready to give a stream of reasons about his dead grandmother, his dead pet, whatever got him out of the eerily calm look the professor was giving him.

"Naruto, simply improve, turn up to classes and hand in your assignments on time, that shouldn't be too much to handle." He was once again reading his book and Naruto felt the strong urge to hit him over the head with it. If that is what he had to do, then fine, Naruto was tired of running away anyway. He could handle anything the smug arrogant Uchiha would throw at him and he'd do it with style.

"I'll improve professor! Don't worry about it!" he beamed brightly, if a little forced.

"One last thing Naruto," the lazy tone was back causing Naruto to pause on his way out. "If you are interested, there is a spot open for supervising the first year experiments. It pays quite well."

Naruto thought of his bank balance, the negative numbers and the worries that came with the little minus sign had been pushed to the back of his mind. It would mean more ramen and maybe even that orange jacket Sakura wouldn't let him buy.

"I'll email you the details." He must have noticed Naruto's glazed eyed look of lust as the professor appeared to be amused. "I believe you are now 10 minutes late for class," Professor Hatake spoke evenly raising his one visible eyebrow.

* * *

"So if you remember your earlier lectures on cell signal-" Sasuke stopped mid-word as the door of the lecture theatre opened. He opened his mouth to make a smart comment about unwelcome late-comers, when the hue of blond hair colour in his periphery stilled the words out of his mouth. He watched as Naruto picked up his bag, barely glanced at him and made his way to the row of seats, taking the steps three at a time before slipping into one of few available aisle seats.

For Sasuke, seeing that bright blond hair seemed to lighten the room a little, even though for the rest of the class a tense silence had ensued. A pointed cough came from the back of the hall, snapping Sasuke back. He searched for Naruto again, wanting a glimpse of blue eyes but was surprised at the disappointment he felt when he saw Naruto rooting through his bag for his writing utensils.

He hadn't seen the blond for well over a month now, though it had felt longer. He had found himself scouring his class at the beginning of each session for a combination of blond, blue and orange. His feet had almost taken him to approach the pink-haired chick that Naruto always sat with.

As Sasuke started up the lecture again, his eyes flickering across the students, straying just a little too long on the blond, he thought about how harassed the blond looked, he wasn't even wearing his typical orange nor did he have that stupid leering grin permanently pasted across his face. Sasuke couldn't decide if this was an improvement or not. He had mentioned to Kakashi, in passing, about Naruto's absence the other day and was surprised to see that talking to the pervert actually produced some results.

Contrary to popular belief Sasuke wasn't a cold-hearted ice prick; he had been concerned about Naruto's absence. As more time passed, he had regretted his harsh words towards the lively blond, though not the rejection, just the manner in which he had gone about it.

'**We didn't have to reject him at all'** Sasuke-whore reared his ugly head. '**We could have had him. Fucked him six ways to Sunday and then done it all over again, and -**_**again.' **_Sasuke once again stopped mid-word and seemed to stare into space for a moment or two, until Sasuke-ice prince made an appearance, '**The lecture, get on with the lecture and stop listening to that dumb-ass. **

The lecture continued with minimal input from the residents in his head, though Sasuke couldn't help but secretly agree with Sasuke-whore. Naruto still looked amazingly good, really fuckable. Although his conscious made the input that the dullness that was now Naruto's aura was more than likely his fault.

As the revision session continued and Sasuke's attention was steered away from Naruto by the numerous questions from people who really shouldn't have been taking his course in the first place, Sasuke came to the realisation that Naruto just wasn't looking up. He made notes fast, glanced at the overhead projector from time to time when diagrams were put up, other than that, no eye contact was made. This irritated Sasuke more than anything, something told him that Naruto had given up. It struck a blow to his ego and left a sick feeling in his stomach.

He finished the lecture with details of revision websites and provided Kakashi's email rather than his own. Sasuke watched the students pack away their things, fending off any questions with stony looks as he watched Naruto. The blond was almost one of the first out of the door. Almost, because Sasuke's feet took a life of their own, as did his mouth.

"Naruto, a word please?" he spoke loudly, his tone neutral. Naruto hesitated at the door as other students on reflex glanced back at him. Broad shoulders stiffened visibly before he turned and approached Sasuke.

"What do you want?" There was none of the underlining mischievousness or the matching brightness; the words were abrupt and irritated.

Sasuke observed him coolly; despite his mixed feelings for the man before him he was his teacher of sorts and did actually have the inclination to help.

"I have your essay from last week," he turned and moved through his files before plucking out the right one. "Here," he stood awkwardly wondering how to offer his help in tuition. '**Simple, tell him you'll fail him if he doesn't get on his knees and suck you off on your desk.' **Sasuke shivered a little as Sasuke-whore provided him with mental images of what his cock would look like sliding in and out of Naruto's mouth.

Shaking off the pictures of Naruto deep-throating him, Sasuke opened his mouth to offer his assistance as a tutor. After all that was part of his job, to make sure the students understood the material, not to get entangled in their complicated loose sex lives. His words were cut off by the greeting of blazing blue eyes narrowed at him. Naruto's muscles were visibly tense as the paper he had been handed was scrunched tight in his fist.

"42?!" The raw anger in Naruto's eyes would have made a lesser male quail but Sasuke was proud, arrogant even, the _boy_ before him had no reason to be angry about his grade. Sasuke had been fair.

"It is what you deserved," Sasuke spoke with his automatic calmness; he was not interested in placating a childish student who was not aware of their own capabilities.

Naruto's hands clenched tighter around the essay, "What was wrong with it?!" He was quite obviously resisting the urge to shout as the words came out as a feral growl.

"None of your tables and diagrams corresponded to the text," the brunet murmured in a clinical tone.

"Well no shit, what's the point of repeating myself?!" this time Naruto did yell, his frustration boiling over. Sasuke knew that the grade carried a significant proportion of the final course mark but the blond should have known better.

"Look, your grades have been slipping, I can hel-" for the umpteenth time Sasuke was cut off. Naruto had moved into his personal space, as he had done so many times before. He didn't radiate sexual energy this time, the unrefined sense of power was of anger.

"I do not need _your_ help," the blond snarled, "got it?" Sasuke looked coolly back into the burning blue eyes. He would not be intimidated. Naruto was still invading his space, the irrational anger causing the younger male to breathe heavily.

The tension was thick. It seemed to Sasuke that the only confrontation situations he had been in were with his brother and lately the blond before him. Sasuke made no move to answer back, though his primal instincts were telling him he should be smashing his mouth against the lips a few inches away.

"Good," Naruto's voice was a little calmer though his eyes were still glaring into Sasuke's condescendingly tranquil ones. Sasuke watched with an almost detached sort of fascination as Naruto left the lecture hall. It occurred to him how odd his feelings of wanting to kiss, wanting to help, and his concern for the blond were.

* * *

Several hours later Naruto was still furious with himself. He was sitting cross-legged on his bed, surrounded by textbooks, random notes and bits of paper strewn with no order whatsoever. He pulled at his hair, going as far as to yank a few strands out before letting his hands fall into his lap. Looking up at the ceiling, he squinted at it thoughtfully. **You like torturing me don't you? As if there isn't enough wrong with my life. **He seriously considered bribing whatever unknown god that was meddling in his life with cookies but figured the deity would be more into goat sacrifices considering the state of his affairs.

He was still pissed off that he had lost his temper in front of the Uchiha; he was even more annoyed to find that in the month that had gone by the fuckwit still looked perfect. It didn't stop there though. Naruto was horrified to find he still wanted the bastard. Physical attraction was one thing, but seeing the small amount of pitying sympathy in the stuck up ass's eyes had made Naruto's anger boil over.

The release of his anger had been done with a tried and true method. Having stomped all the way home, he had entered his room, followed closely by Akamaru. He had yelled himself hoarse, combined with Akamaru's howling also. Both man and dog had been out of breath after 15 minutes. Naruto would have continued but there had been several loud thuds against the front door which were interrupting the flow of passion. He had opened the door and narrowly avoided being hit in the head with a spiked heel. Ducking, he had been able to see Kankuro sitting in on the couch of Gaara's apartment, chucking Temari's heels at the apartment door.

"Cut that shit out," was accompanied by a red stiletto.

Naruto had then tried the meditating crap that Sakura was always babbling about. He should have known better considering her anger management skills. The blond had sat on the living room floor, cross legged with pins and needles after 10 minutes, listening to the tick tock of the clock. The clock was now in the trash.

It was now evening and Naruto's rage had diminished little. If he were honest, he knew it was more because of how he had handled the situation rather than what Sasuke had said. Though the bastard had really gotten under his skin with offering to help, whatever good intentions the Uchiha had had be damned. He was irritated with himself for still wanting the asshole so bad. It was frustrating.

Trying to study had built up his frustrations even more. He felt the burn of needing to do well yet one incident with the TA had lead to all his thoughts concentrated on those dark apathetic eyes, he just knew there was _something_ behind them.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when a Kiba materialised out of nowhere and poked him in the nose, "Oi, you in there somewhere?" He found a pair of auburn eyes peering intently into his. Smacking the hand that still continued to poke, he glared back.

"Whoa there, what's nested in your ass?"

"Nothing," Naruto sounded like a petulant child sulking.

Kiba gave him a sceptical look, "Whatever. Your pansy ass has been moping about too much lately. C'mon, need to talk to you about something." The spiky-haired brunet stood from his crouched position, moving towards the door.

Akamaru abandoned Naruto, following his true love. Naruto sighed wistfully; he wanted love like that. He squinted his eyes at Akamaru and considered hiding the dog biscuits. **Traitor.**

* * *

Kiba grinned nervously at Naruto who was sitting on the couch alternately glaring at Akamaru and shooting him suspicious glances.

"What did ya want? I have a shit load of work to do you know! Time is money Kiba! Time is money!" Naruto gave him another petulant/constipated look as his leg started to jig in his impatience.

They were waiting for Hinata; Kiba felt it was vital for his family jewels that she was present when he broke the news to Naruto.

"Kibaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaa…" Naruto took in breaths between his whining and the massacre of Kiba's name.

"Just give her 10 more minutes!" Kiba shot the blond an annoyed look who stuck his tongue out at him. Hinata was never late; her father must be keeping her longer than expected.

"C'mon Kiba, spit it out already, it can't be that bad that you need to hide behind your girlfriend," Naruto mocked. "Oh look at me, I'm Kiba and I'm a little fraidy cat so I'm gonna hide behind Hinata," Naruto sing-songed as he and Akamaru acted out the roles of Kiba and Hinata respectively.

Kiba growled but his eyes remained trained on the door. He was worried that maybe Hinata was rethinking the idea. Their relationship was full of insecurities as he still couldn't believe his luck every time he got to hold her.

He looked back to see Naruto making kissy faces with Akamaru who was licking at Naruto's nose, "I luuuurve you Hinata, lets make babies!"

This continued for a while, the role play of Kiba and Hinata getting more eccentric until Kiba snapped and pounced on his best friends.

"Stop. Making. Fun. This. Is. Serious!" Kiba had managed to (with the aide of Akamaru who had once again switched sides) get Naruto face down into one of the couch cushions which he was using to smother the blond with.

"Can't…. breathe…" Naruto gasped and his hold slackened immediately; a dead Naruto would only come back as a ghost to scare the crap out of him in the middle of the night.

Once they had settled down again, after Naruto had attempted to reclaim his loss three times, Naruto's whining began anew.

"Ok ok ok!! Fine, shut up for a second so I can tell you!" This clammed Naruto's mouth up quickly. He mimicked zipping his mouth shut, locking it and throwing away the key. Kiba rolled his eyes at the action and stood to face Naruto.

"Hinata and I… we've decided to erm… take our relationship… to another level…" Naruto stared at him for a few moments and Kiba stared back, hands itching to cover his crotch. Then he was tackled.

His back hit the ground painfully as Naruto straddled him. "MAN! I am so proud of you! Finally!!" Naruto was taking this new information well.

Naruto shook him by the shoulders. "Well you've done this before so you don't need any advice right?" Kiba was definitely confused now, no, he'd never done this before. "What's wrong? Hinata is way hot, it'll be magical!" Naruto was now nodding enthusiastically.

Naruto got up and held out a hand to Kiba, as the brunet stood, he found his back being pounded in congratulations. Naruto's reaction was way overboard and in the wrong direction.

Naruto was eyeing him gleefully, "I knew you couldn't last all that long!"

"Naruto, I don't think you-" Kiba began. This had gone horribly wrong; he _knew_ he should have waited for Hinata.

"No need to say another word, I'll leave the apartment, go stay with Gaara or something, you guys have fun now, yeah?" Naruto winked at him. Apparently Naruto couldn't resist the parting shot of, "don't do anything I wouldn't do," as he opened the door where Hinata stood with her hand raised.

"Don't worry Hinata, you guys are all alone now, I was just leaving," Naruto grinned at her. Hinata looked just as baffled as Kiba.

"Oh Naruto, we're sorry!" Hinata enveloped him in a hug and now it was Naruto's turn to look bewildered. Hinata released him quickly, blushing at her own boldness.

"Erm, its ok?" Naruto patted her arm. Kiba looked at the both of them and felt like screaming.

Taking a deep breath he reached for his primal senses, calming himself down. "Listen Naruto, it's not what you think," Kiba shook his head as he spoke.

"Huh? You and Hinata are gonna…" At this he turned his back on Hinata, made a hole with his left hand, and stuck his right index finger into it… repeatedly, "Right?" His eyes expressed his confusion and his finger absently-mindedly continued its thrusts into the hand made hole.

"No! I mean yes! Later, but no, it's not that!" Kiba shook his head again trying to clear the images of what Naruto had unintentionally provided him with.

Hinata was now occupied with Akamaru, so Kiba decided to try again on his own.

Another deep breath, "I'm moving out and moving in with Hinata."

Everything happened in slow motion. Hinata came to stand beside Kiba, Akamaru quieted sensing the sombre atmosphere and Naruto's hands dropped.

"Oh…"


	9. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am in no way associated with the owner and no copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

**Chapter 8**

* * *

Naruto was staying at Sakura's apartment; reasons for this were many-fold. Firstly, when Kiba had been in the process of moving out, Naruto had woken up in the middle of the night and had started unpacking everything. That included putting away all his clothes, handling Kiba's dog print underwear with a pair of tongs, re-gluing all his random posters of animals and Judge Dredd with _superglue_ and tying Kiba to the bed. He had then happily left for class, feeling confident Kiba would be home when he got back (Naruto had a few abandonment issues).

Akamaru had watched Kiba all day, probably confused as to why his owner kept comparing him to Lassie. He had taken to curling up asleep on Kiba's chest, memories of being a young pup floating through his mind.

After a few nights of this happening Kiba had taken action, he didn't want to kick his friend when he was down and understood that the core of Naruto was to be around his friends, so he had blackmailed Sakura into helping out. What had he blackmailed her with? Well with one of her deep dark secrets of having had a period of her life which was buried deep away where she had had a crush on Naruto the blond bombshell. Had Naruto found out about this he wouldn't have shut up about it, ever.

So while Kiba moved out in between his job, his classes and running away from Hinata's father/Neji (he couldn't tell the difference from afar) who appeared to be stalking him, Naruto had been manhandled into staying with Sakura for a few days. This meant threatening Naruto with her 'fists of fury' and dragging him out of the apartment by the ear.

* * *

_**Day 1:**_

Naruto had walked in on Lee in the shower. He had been woken up from his niche on the couch, shuffled towards the bathroom to take a piss and had had found out that Lee showered while wearing his green spandex suit. Not that he wasn't grateful to that fact, but the way the black shiny hair wet had shook from side to side and how the droplets had caught on Lee's lower eyelashes has mesmerised Naruto. He couldn't help thinking Lee was beautiful, and that small passing thought had disturbed Naruto so thoroughly that he had ended up curling up in corner rifling through his porn collection to remind himself of how much he enjoyed the sight of boobs and cock.

Sakura had simply smirked, completely forgetting to be affronted by the porn and told Lee to stop apologising.

_**Day 2:**_

It wasn't Lee that Naruto found in the shower this time, it was his counterpart. Sakura had screamed so loudly that Naruto couldn't even enjoy the view of her pert breasts covered partially in soap suds and the fact that she was pink down there too. Sakura had chucked the razor she'd been using the shave her armpits at Naruto's face; he had managed to dodge it, but slipped in the process. He had woken a few hours later with miraculous selective amnesia.

_**Day 3:**_

This time the bathroom had been completely empty much to his relief and somewhat disappointment (Lee's beauty now gave him disturbing nightmares) however being out of loo roll he'd wandered into Sakura's room asking loudly where she kept it. This had been a mistake because Sakura and her fuzzy browed lover were in the middle of an expression of their love. Now professional porn is all very nice to watch and salivate over but seeing a live show was horrifying. Lee was revealed to be the most flexible person ever, a good view of his alarmingly large balls has caused Naruto to shriek and continue in this manner until Sakura (her skin the exact pink of her hair from the exertions of before) had covered them up while throwing a lamp at Naruto. Later they had the _'what mommy and daddy do behind closed doors and why you should always fucking knock, you retard! talk'_

* * *

That talk had happened a few hours ago, Naruto now stood outside his apartment, key in hand and desperately wanting to not go in. He had lived with Kiba for over 5 years. During his last few years of high school he had moved in with him when at the young age of sixteen his 'guardian' had up and left. Kiba was his brother and his best friend a bond that had instantly formed. Although Kiba wasn't gone entirely he didn't want to live alone again, he had already felt the ache of an empty home. However Naruto understood that Kiba needed space and time to develop his relationship with Hinata. Discovering just how serious they were about each other had worried Naruto and so it had been pushed to back of his mind to worry about later. Except later was now.

Naruto pushed the key in and the door was half open before something large impacted into the middle of his back toppling him forwards into the room.

"NARUTO!"

The lump on his back screamed into his ears, arms had tightened around his waist and he was having difficulty moving. He groaned feeling the soreness in his knees already and attempted to turn around

"MY NARUTO!" Came the high pitched screech. Naruto was now trying desperately to crawl away, if he was being attacked by some freaky alien human hybrid he needed to warn the others.

Finally being able to extract himself for the arm tentacles he found his would-be attacker was actually Gaara. He attempted to raise any eyebrow at the out of character expression on the pale man's face.

Gaara was now sitting cross legged in his door way, looking at Naruto in adoration and a little coyly. It didn't even look like Gaara anymore, the usually narrowed kohl lined eyes were now opened wide to match the sappy smile that had replaced the colourless stiff mouth. Naruto began to edge away; he wanted to poke it but thought it might attack.

As Naruto shuffled across the floor, with varying paces in speed, the Gaara look-a-like matched him, all the while babbling at him about what he had for breakfast.

"That's where he went," a female voice from above spoke, Naruto looked up to see Temari watching in amusement at the scene before her.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO GAARA?! I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!" Naruto let out his stream of confusion and to be frank, how scared he was in the outburst.

Temari narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to give a scathing reply when Kankuro appeared leaning against the door in his semblance of cool.

"Oh good," Kankuro rolled his eyes as Gaara climbed in Naruto's lap and started to stroke his hair.

Naruto's eyes almost popped out of his head as Gaara started to what can only be called groom him.

He turned these eyes on the other siblings and wordlessly demanded an answer.

"He's doped up on his crazy meds," Kankuro explained in an irritated manner.

"They're not crazy meds!" Temari snapped in response, and thus an argument began. Amidst the yelling of 'it's your fucking fault' and other profanities that the siblings employed as words of endearment and nicknames for each other, Naruto was able to discern what had happened.

"He still seemed so fucking grumpy, so I gave him a little more!" It was a now a full-out screaming match. Naruto had stopped listening though, Gaara's hands were wondering all over his face.

"Naruto," he sighed happily. What Naruto had managed to gauge was that Gaara was on a high from his antidepressant pills.

The blond chucked a cushion at the other blonde to get her attention, "erm, shouldn't we take him to a hospital or something?"

"Nah, his therapist says the effects will wear off in a few hours," Kankuro grinned.

Naruto sighed as Gaara's hands began to wonder over his torso, still firmly placed in his lap with no signs of moving while happily repeating "Naruto" over and over again.

"How did this happen?!" Wide pleading blue eyes were turned on Temari who shrugged before launching into an explanation, littered with huffs and grunts from Kankuro.

The story that Naruto had managed to piece together was that Gaara had seemed to have become particularly depressed and homicidal (more so than usual) since Naruto's departure. After finding several rat heads in his room accompanied by hand-written death threats by his pillow in the morning, Kankuro had insisted Temari do something. The blonde had turned to his therapist who had prescribed some stronger medication. The problem came when the medication hadn't had much effect initially and so Kankuro had gotten him to take some more, unaware Temari had done the same only a half hour before. So now Gaara was overdosed on three times the recommended dose and was terrifyingly happy.

"He's also got diarrhoea," Kankuro was listing the side-effects. "But I'm sure you can handle him for a while."

"Hey! Wait! Where are you guys going?!" Temari and Kankuro were now walking towards the door.

"He only wants you anyway, and we need a break from babysitting, take him to the park or something, he likes sunlight now, try not to kill him k?" And with that the elder siblings made their exit leaving a confused Naruto who absently patted the being in his arms on the head.

* * *

Sasuke glared infuriated at Kakashi. They were in the staff room having a very much one-sided argument.

"I did offer him _my_ help," he ground out.

"Mm," was the non-committal reply.

"I don't see why he's supervising the first years with me; I can handle them fine by myself." Sasuke continued to speak in his forced tone.

"Ah,"

"He'll just waste more time and give me extra work to deal," Sasuke continued as if reading between the murmured sounds.

"Maa..."

"Besides, he's got too much work to catch up on anyway he can't afford to give up the studying time."

"You underestimate him," Kakashi spoke actual words this time causing Sasuke to pause. When he searched Kakashi's face he found no sign that the other had actually said anything.

Sasuke's mouth twitched, he was surrounded by morons. He had offered to help Naruto, to tutor him and get him back on track, and had been rejected. Uchiha Sasuke had never once been rejected in his life. He had lived a pampered existence despite being largely devoid of the acceptance and love he desired subconsciously; it still hadn't contained any outright rejections.

However it wasn't the rebuff that caused him to think a little harder, that frown line to mar his smooth skin at random times over the last few days. No, it was something else in Naruto's blue eyes that had demanded more from him. That he could give him more. Sasuke wasn't entirely sure how the blond moron had wormed his way into his mind and life so thoroughly and it gave him a headache just thinking about it. What his personality should be was so ingrained into him from his parents and the influences of Itachi that at times he didn't know who's thoughts he was thinking.

Sighing, he stood up from his position aware that the one eye that was apparently sleeping was actually tracking his every movement. "I'll give him a try."

"Mmm, good because I'd like you to show him around in about fifteen minutes."

Sasuke raised a brow.

"I have to go help Gai with his charity bake sale," Kakashi's eyes twinkled as Sasuke's expression indicated just how much he bought the excuse. "Anyway, bye-bye," Kakashi somehow managed to melt out of visibility much like the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland.

* * *

Naruto was running. It was so typical. His first day of working for the Professor and he was late already. It hadn't been his fault really; Kiba had come round to see how he was settling him. He had bought 50 different kinds of ramen with him to placate Naruto. Which had worked marvellously, they had played games, drank beer (they were students, they could do this in the middle of the morning) until it had come to Kiba leaving.

He had learnt his lesson from before, besides strapping Kiba to the bed while he was conscious wouldn't work. So he had locked him in the bathroom and extracted extravagant promises from him, such as never leaving and buying him even _more_ ramen. A few hours later had left both boys sitting either side of the door bawling their eyes out with declarations of love and promises and this was how Hinata found them. Both were quite prone to drama and it took a while for Hinata to calm them down.

It wasn't until Naruto's internal stomach clock began ticking that the blond realised it was gone lunchtime. He was meant to meet Professor Kakashi a little before two o'clock so he could be given instructions and shown around the lab. This wasn't really necessary as he had performed the same experiments in his first year but it was protocol as he'd actually be in charge this time.

It had rained earlier so he was jumping into puddles, most of the time not on purpose. He had decided to take the job because he couldn't afford to keep the apartment otherwise. He was secretly hoping that Kiba would move back and that's why he was so reluctant to let it go. He could see how happy Kiba and Hinata were, even though Kiba seemed to have become slightly paranoid as of late, checking behind all the doors as he walked through and scanning the area outside the window etc. It was difficult for him to be optimistic about the situation.

He pulled at the back of his t-shirt which was sticking to his back with sweat and searched his pockets for his university ID. Finding it, he flashed it to the security guard while shooting him a beaming smile. The guard gave him a suspicious look before nodding him through.

He skidded down the hallways and ran down the stairs. He could not be late. Professor Hatake was a confusing man, sure he seemed nice, but he could switch personalities quite easily. Besides Naruto was looking forward to the job. He remembered the amount of fun he had during first year labs, completely forgetting how much of a pain he had been to the supervisors.

Pulling out his phone he took a quick glance at the time, he was going to make it, the finish line was in sight. He only needed to be there ten minutes before labs started. The grey-haired professor hadn't seemed too fussed, but when Naruto set out to do things he did them with all his heart and a fair amount of whining, an odd combination but it made things interesting.

* * *

Sasuke tapped his foot against the back of the door waiting in impatience outside the lab for Naruto to arrive. The moron was late as usual and the longer that the dark-haired man was made to wait the more uneasy he became. Their last meeting hadn't gone particularly well and Sasuke was unused to feeling so out of sync with his thoughts and emotions.

A blond/orange/black blur rushed past him through the other side of the door. Sasuke smirked **one… two… three….**

Naruto walked backwards out of the room to do a double take.

"You're late, Naruto," Sasuke's smirk remained in place, any anxiety he had had a few moments go vanished at the adorable confused expression on the blond's face. The look soon vanished though to be replaced by a hardening in the clear blue eyes. Sasuke felt slightly disappointed and felt he could taste the bitterness in his mouth.

Naruto's face was still blank. "You're helping me supervise the first year labs right?" Sasuke took a deep breath and gave Naruto a questioning look, the awkwardness was starting to build a strange sensation in the pit of his stomach.

Naruto's blankness vanished as he took in the words; Sasuke caught the morphing of inner rage to the easy going smile he received.

"Yup!" And with that Naruto walked back into the lab.

Sasuke lent his head back to hit lightly against the door behind; this was going to be a long evening.

* * *

He had shown the blond around the lab, pointing out where all the solutions were kept, the general procedure and the general fire safety rules. Most of the time he was certain that Naruto wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention but every time he turned to look at him his eyes were locked with piercing blue eyes that if he were honest sent slight shocks running down his spine.

"Pay attention Naruto, this is a trial run, I will be reporting back to Kakashi on how well this works out," Sasuke felt the need to re-establish his authority over the blond. He didn't like the way flashbacks of their last encounter in the labs kept flashing at random times as he spoke. He remembered the harsh dry kiss, the domination and sudden lack of control and slight tremors ran through him as his body remembered also.

Naruto shot him a forced grin, well what Sasuke thought was forced anyway because the harshness in the eyes remained. The conflict of wanting to be a little softer and harder on the blond at the same time made things unnecessarily complicated.

"Now what?" Naruto wasn't looking at him, glancing around the lab to take everything in.

"Here's the protocol, familiarize yourself with it, that's the experiment the first years are carrying out today," Sasuke handed over the stapled sheets. "It's all standard, you should have done them all already," Sasuke offered with a smile that no one saw.

"Yeah, I've done this shit already, I know how." Naruto growled.

Sasuke sighed internally. **Well it's your own damn fault.** He was going to be spending the next four, possibly five hours with the blond who was _still_ so pissed off at him. It wasn't as if he hadn't tried to help him, and it certainly wasn't his fault Naruto had insisted on that date and holding his bag hostage. This was very aggravating to Sasuke, the worst part was actually having to realise that he cared that this twenty something thick-headed _student_ was upset with him Uchiha Sasuke didn't give a flying fuck who he upset, except now apparently he did. **That's because we want to fuck him, why won't you let us get laid?!** It disturbed him that the voices spoke in plural.

"Look, Uchiha…" Sasuke looked up to see Naruto's eyes slightly narrowed. "I don't care about what's happened between us before, why don't we try to be friends, or you know, you stop being such a bastard, at least until the end of this thing." Naruto spoke lightly but there was an underlying flash of red in his eyes that made Sasuke think before he spoke.

"Whatever you want, _Uzumaki_, now if you're done with your drama…" Despite actually trying to be considerate his words still came out callous. It didn't matter though Naruto had stopped listening at _'Uzumaki'_ and was now on the other side of the lab receiving an enthusiastic greeting from Gai.

Sasuke felt the great urge to smack his forehead. Surrounded by morons.

He watched with a certain amount of amusement as Naruto and Gai talked animatedly. His eyes widened when he saw Gai removing his lab coat. **Oh, god, not the spandex. Please. Anything but the spandex.** Sasuke's usually quick reflexes didn't work as fast as he would have liked; his sharp eyes got a full view of every outline on Gai's body. He watched torn between horror and enjoyment as Naruto _squealed_ over the outfit.

Gai's booming laughter reached across the lab. "Ah Naruto! Pupil of my rival! By the end of the session we will see if you are worthy of the green beast outfit!"

Sasuke found his spirits oddly lightened to see Naruto smiling genuinely, but cringed when he had a vision of Naruto wearing the outfit.

"Wow! It has so many pockets!" Naruto walked around Gai, he took one look at the view from behind and his enthusiasm evaporated instantly. Sasuke's smirk reformed.

The first years began to trail in, grabbing seats, the girls insisting on sitting with their friends and the boys causing a general chaos. He walked over to Naruto and shoved half the protocols in his hands with a mumbled "Hand these out" and receiving the reply of "Anything you want, bastard!"

After Gai gave his deafening speech about what they would be doing that afternoon, instilling the youth of springtime within their fresh young minds etc, he pointed out a very put off Sasuke (who was only now wondering where Kakashi was if Gai was here) and a beaming Naruto who gave everyone two thumbs up, and instructed them they were here to help. The green beast was not staying; he had left Kakashi alone at the bake sale.

* * *

The lab session was in full swing now, Naruto had memorised the protocol and was having a stupid amount of fun playing teacher.

He went around from student to student chatting happily with them, showing them all the easy tricks.

"Oh god, this is so gross Sir!" Naruto wasn't about to correct anyone from calling him 'Sir'.

"Nah, you see most of the erm faeces, yeah, that, they form in the colon! So what we've got in this little guy's ileum is really just mashed up food." The girl looked at him with large adoring eyes as he helped her string up the piece of tissue in the organ bath.

"See all you do is just tie it with a reef knot, that way we don't rip it," Naruto looked up as he spoke and caught Sasuke's dark unreadable eyes watching him a few metres away, they held his briefly before breaking the contact.

Naruto pushed his warring thoughts to the back of his mind. He had spent two hours trying to ignore the prickling he felt every time Sasuke looked at him. It was so hard dealing with all the crap going on in his life currently that the soft looks he had caught on the TA's face only translated to looks of pity. It didn't help that his libido was clawing at him. Standing next to Sasuke during Professor Maito's talk had unnerved him, only because all his muscles tensed from wanting to feel the warmth inches away.

"Ah, Sir?"

"Huh? Oh! Right!" Naruto proceeded to carry on explaining, his words coming out jumbled.

There was a crash next to him and he was sufficiently dragged out his thoughts at the breaking of the glass beaker.

"Here, don't worry about it, we all do that," Naruto shot the girl a reassuring smile and started to turn away to clean up the mess until he saw the large gash running across the side of her palm. He quickly got the first aid kit and gently took her arm to start cleaning the wound.

"Hey, its fine, look it's stopped bleeding now," he gave her his best good guy smile, and received a watery smile in return.

Again he looked up to Sasuke, whose mouth was twisted in a harsh line this time, he grinned brightly in return showing his canines and went back to helping the student. After mopping up the mess with some paper towels he spent the rest of the time entirely ignoring the bastard.

However it was difficult to avoid Sasuke when around 7pm the lab was completely cleared of students and the lab techs were in the process of leaving.

"So… erm… what now?" Naruto looked at what he had termed in his head 'The Bastard'.

The Bastard looked up and The Dagger twitched. Figures.

"I just need to clear up a few more things, you're free to go," Sasuke's spoke in clear dismissal.

Naruto sighed, if they weren't going to sort things out, things would get awkward. Well, more awkward.

"Look, Sasuke, how about we try this friends thing?" Naruto walked over to where Sasuke was yanking at rolls of recordings on the chart machine and wasn't particular listening.

He automatically placed his hands over Sasuke's, standing behind him to help him with freeing the paper stuck there. It wasn't until he heard Sasuke's slightly shuddering breath that he realised how inappropriate what he was doing was. Also that it had seemed all too natural for him to always be this close to the dark haired man.

Naruto stepped away, hand reaching to rub at the back of his neck, "heh, sorry, so yeah? Friends?"

* * *

Sasuke looked at Naruto's extended hand, his eyes traveled up the limb to catch at Naruto's blue sincere eyes, he nodded, dark hair falling to hide his eyes and then took the hand in his. The tingles shooting from the touch made his heart beat just a little faster, blood pounding in his ears.

He held on for a moment longer, shook it before speaking, "Friends," in agreement.


	10. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am in no way associated with the owner and no copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

**Chapter 9**

* * *

Dinner at the Uchiha's was always an uncomfortable affair. And that night as Sasuke sat on one end of the long table, it was no different. Their business of selling high tech computer software had not only made them extremely wealthy, but it had invariably gone to the Uchihas' heads.

Sasuke was dressed for the part of being the son of a well off business man such as Uchiha Fugaku and he certainly seemed to be playing his role well. Money changed people, it had changed Fugaku, it had changed his mother, and as a young child it had certainly changed the youngest Uchiha's opinion of himself. However, the elder brother, Itachi? Well he was just plain fucked in the head.

The meal was being served by a caterer; Sasuke couldn't recall what the occasion was. It didn't matter though, despite the fact that Fugaku had indulged his youngest child's wishes to continue his education at something that was almost certainly a dead-end money wise, that did not mean his opinion would be taken much into consideration.

Uchiha Fugaku had another son in which he could bestow all his expectations and pride and what not. There was nothing quite like being brought up in an arrogant rich family.

The elder brother had a cruel streak within him and evidently that had manifested tonight. Sasuke was sitting in a stunned sort of silence. His hand still grasping his wine glass loosely, his food had been untouched for perhaps ten minutes and no one but Itachi had seemed to notice the statuesque appearance of the youngest male.

_You will quit your education now, you've been allowed far too much leeway, its time you joined Itachi at the company. _

The words were still ringing around Sasuke's mind in a disjointed fashion. He couldn't do that. He didn't want to do that. Looking into his older brother's dark eyes, ones that usually held so much disdain for him; he felt he could make out the amusement there. He was sure that an extra line had been added to the corner of Itachi's mouth indicating his cruel mirth. But it was all gone again when his dry eyes blinked.

Mikoto was indicating dessert should be served, Fugaku had excused himself to take a call and Itachi's eyes were as cold and dead as they usually were. Sasuke's hand trembled as he removed the appendage away before it broke the glass that he was holding. What had he expected exactly? To be overlooked completely? Well why not? It had always been that way after all. And now when he felt like his life had reached a niche, when colour had been added, it all seemed to slip away in an offhand sentence. Offhand perhaps, but with finality to it.

It was rare that Sasuke's thoughts screamed at him to do the opposite of what Fugaku wanted. At the moment, it had seemed as if all the voices had united under their common interest and screamed _'NO'_ throughout his mind. It was with a heady rush that his mouth formed that single syllable. But no sound came out.

Itachi's elegant eyebrow was raised, "something bothering you, Sasuke?" He took a sip of his wine not looking particularly interested in hearing an answer.

And then the syllable found purchase in sound, "no".

'_YES'_ cried his apparently unified voices, and Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed in his confusion. Why was he so resolute about staying in his profession? Yes he enjoyed it and he was passionate about it. However a good proportion of his life had been about pleasing his father, the man currently talking in a frustrated manner, voice booming from the next room. Completely clueless with the dilemma he had placed on his son.

"It was about time you gave up with this foolishness anyway, Father is right." Itachi spoke smoothly, continuing their one sided conversation as he cut up the slice of ham on his plate.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed on his brother. When had his hatred for the man intensified to such an extent? He gave a nod of his head while his fists clenched, the bones appearing white through the skin beneath the table.

It wasn't foolishness, Sasuke's mind thought childishly. After all these years his emotions concerning his brother remained mixed and even more than the attention of his father, he desired Itachi's. Constant rejection at an early age had left such a psychological effect on his poor mind that Sasuke often wondered who was more fucked up. No, Itachi still won that vote.

As his mind absently sorted out the reasons for his warring thoughts, his hands cut up his meat, and on automatic he chewed the food. Yes, so okay, Kakashi was actually a _good_teacher he grudgingly admitted, but he wasn't worth fighting tooth and nail to stay as his PhD student. And _yes _Maito Gai was alright in small doses. _Really small doses_. Other PhD students he didn't feel any attachment to.

Then the vision of vivid blue eyes swam before his own. Sasuke-whore letting out a smirking 'hn' as he choked on his drink.

His eyes watered slightly as he felt his throat constrict and relax.

"You should go easy on the wine, little brother; you obviously can't handle your alcohol very well," Itachi didn't know how right he was.

Before Sasuke could snipe back his own response, Sasuke-whore provided the wonderful sensation of a thumb running across his lips. He didn't know why he had thought that and he worried at his bottom lip in an unconscious gesture.

Now it was whisker marks stretched across tanned cheeks. The idiot was still taking up residence in Sasuke's mind. Sasuke-whore seemed to be squeezing the image of the blond, humping it at random intervals and then looking pathetically back at the true owner of Sasuke's mind. 'Gimme' was written all over the little whore's face. The youngest Uchiha resisted the urge to sigh dramatically as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

When Fugaku returned to the table, Sasuke rose from his seat. It took a great of courage to raise his ass from that chair, but he did it.

"I want to carry on with my education." He spoke as firmly as he could, and kept his eyes trained on his father's. Itachi had sat back in his chair, arms folded across his slim chest, and Mikoto let out an audible gasp. Uchihas did not stand up to their fathers.

Fugaku eyed his youngest son. He hadn't seen determination like that on an Uchiha's face in a very long time. "Very well, if you're so adamant about this, you won't need my money any longer now will you?" Determination was good yes, but that didn't mean he was going to make things easier on the boy.

Sasuke's eyes widened a miniscule fraction. That was a condition he could accept. He nodded his head.

"Good, now lets enjoy the rest of this meal shall we?" The conversation was dismissed.

And all the voices in Sasuke's head simultaneously started clapping.

Sasuke sat down, his limbs a little stiff from shaking. His eyes shifted over to his brother's impassive face. Which was a little too impassive. Itachi seemed to be exercising an enormous amount of control; the only thing that gave him away was that he was holding his dessert spoon as if he'd like to stab something with it.

* * *

The door opened and Kakashi's masked face peered out from behind. The sight that greeted his single eye made it curve even further. His cute little TA stood on the doorstep a packed suitcase beside him and a duffel bag slung over one shoulder.

**Well this is certainly interesting.**

The wind ruffled up Sasuke's bangs, the spikes at the back looking increasingly like that of a farmyard bird. He also had the pinched expression of a chihuahua which only served to brighten the professor's face more.

"Yo! Sasuke, what can I do for you?" Kakashi's eye shut completely as he beamed. Of course he could clearly see what the young man wanted. But there was nothing like good old fashioned Sasuke-torture late in the evening.

"I need a place to stay," replied Sasuke curtly.

"Oh?" Kakashi wasn't about to give in so easily. There were so few instances when he could tease his TA these days (mostly due to the fact that he was never on time to their scheduled meetings) that he felt he ought to milk this for all it was worth.

A gust of wind whistled by and still silence prevailed. It was like a photo snap of time. Sasuke's unyielding expression changed as little as Kakashi's closed eyed smile.

"Now Sasuke, unless you can tell me a heartfelt endearing tale of woe, I don't see any reason to let you into my home. My nice, _warm_ home." Kakashi's mild tone had no effect on the statuesque Sasuke, who could have been frozen from the cold or the fact that he was going to have to _plead_ his way into the house.

More silence passed, with more whistling wind and even a slight shiver from Sasuke.

"You said that I could always come to you with my problems." Sasuke gritted out, it was obviously quite painful for the poor boy to say that sentence. Kakashi's mouth twitched upwards in sympathy.

The door was still partially open and the professor's head was still peering around it.

"Well of course, now what is the problem?"

Sasuke had obviously thought that that teeth pulling sentence had been enough as his pupils dilated slightly in surprise.

"Maa… come now Sasuke, I'm giddy that you've come to me with your 'problem' but maybe you can elaborate or would you rather I assumed?"

The masked man watched with great delight as Sasuke's frame stood stiffer than ever. It wasn't that he hated his student. On the contrary, Kakashi enjoyed watching the young boy blossom into a beautiful rose under his single eye. Sasuke would have probably transferred universities had he know that Kakashi likened him to a flower.

"Itachi and I had an argument. I've moved out." Sasuke's lips moved a minuscule amount as he spoke.

"Well I can see that." Kakashi was a genius after all.

"I need a place to stay," Sasuke reiterated.

"Mm."

The Uchiha seemed to be particularly pig headed tonight. Usually he would have eventually caved under caring-sharing-teacher time, only because he had a limited amount of patience.

He stepped aside to allow Sasuke into his home. It would be an interesting experience having the brunet stay.

* * *

Naruto's phone was vibrating. Did Naruto care? No. He was currently having warm happy dreams about frolicking through meadows. Well that's what he would have told anyone who had asked. In fact he was currently frolicking through the play boy mansion. His cheeks turned a red colour as breasts galore entered the dream. Oh this was beautiful, this was heaven. But there was something missing. **Men!** and so cocks, hard long thick cocks accompanied the breasts. And then Sasuke's stern, un-amused face made an appearance. Only his hard-on wasn't killed instantly. His dick twitched a little more in defiance, wanting to make love to Sasuke's face. It wilted in a piteous manner when Sasuke raised an eyebrow. The Dagger was learning.

Naruto grumbled as he groped around for his phone. **Why so early? WHY? **Glancing at his Power Rangers alarm clock his thoughts still maintained that it was still stupidly early. The clock had just blinked 12:54 pm.

"Hello?!" Naruto pouted as he flopped back on the bed, closing his eyes to the ceiling.

"Naruto! Guesswhatguesswhatguesswhat!" The voice belonged to Kiba. A soon to be dead Kiba.

"Hello? Naruto? You still there?" Kiba _did_ sound excited, and it was probably important.

Naruto shook himself out of sleep's arms and mumbled a "yeah".

"Are you gonna guess?"

"Huh?" Was the extremely intelligent reply.

"It's no fun if you don't guess!"

And so the guessing began. After several tries about maybe Kiba and Akamaru had eloped to Vegas or Hinata's father and Neji had decided to go on an all expenses paid trip to Pluto, Kiba got a little frustrated.

"No, no, _no_! You blond moron"

"Hey! No hating on the hair!"

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

"What?" Naruto grew a little worried as Kiba made no response.

"How gay are you exactly?" Naruto rolled his eyes at that and shifted around on the bed, creasing up the bedding and spreading his legs out wide.

"Not gay enough to want to do you." Naruto felt a little smug at his quick witted reply. Yes his brain could function five minutes after being poked awake.

After more goading each other because that was Naruto's was of letting Kiba know he was missing him. They settled back into a comfortable silence.

"Kiba…?"

"Yeah?"

"What were you gonna tell me?"

"Huh? Oh right, Hinata and I…"

Naruto got himself onto his elbows. "Yes?" Anticipation flooded his system.

"We uh…"

Naruto sat up properly, the bed sheets pooling around him, excitement for his best friend was rising within him

"Erm…"

Naruto moved to stand. "Spit it out already!" One arm went to make a pumping motion in the air.

"We got past first base!"

"Yes! Huh? Oh, is that it?" Naruto's arm went limp. He had been expecting something _more._

"What do you mean is that it?" Kiba screeched, this had obviously been huge news for him. Coaxing Hinata into bed required the patience of a saint.

"Nothing nothing, so was it nice?" Naruto placated as he crawled back into bed. Well if he wasn't getting any at least Kiba wasn't either.

"I'm not telling you!"

Thus another full blown argument ensued.

Even though Naruto had produced his famous (manly) puppy dog eyes, Kiba hadn't moved back. He and his painfully shy girlfriend had settled in well. Naruto had been very close to giving Hinata's father a call and letting the cat out of the bag, but sadly his morals had given him a severe talking to. He missed Kiba. He even missed Sakura who seemed to be stopping by less frequently due to how much time she spent with Lee. Most likely occupied having scary _not pretty_ heterosexual relations with the green clad beast. Both of his friends had an unhealthy interest in bestiality, fantastic.

Naruto was still arguing with Kiba as he rummaged through the kitchen. Usually they had plenty to eat. Hinata often topped up their supplies when Kiba wasn't paying attention, and Naruto wasn't about to argue with that as she always added ramen to her shopping list. But now Hinata wasn't here. Naruto had tried persuading Sakura to do his shopping for him too. After all having Lee willing to make runs and consider it weight training made her life easier. He had received a visit from the all mighty inner Sakura when she had caught him dictating a list to Lee.

Naruto huffed as he ended his conversation with Kiba, he hadn't got anywhere with that either. Kiba had started snarling and most likely foaming at the mouth when Naruto had queried what colour panties Hinata wore.

He walked back to his room while scratching at his chest. Today, he was going to wear orange. Not just because he liked it enough to put it on his top ten list of things that are awesome along with a victory sign, but also because it was fun to see Sasuke's eye twitch.

Things had been going well between him and the TA. Despite their somewhat rocky start they were on a voyage to a wonderfully fulfilling friendship complete with bickering and the silent treatment.

After their purely platonic handshake Naruto had deluded himself into thinking things would work out a-ok. And nature had never intended for Naruto to be right. The only thing that he had managed to do right was the 'let's be friends' thing, other than that things had gone pretty much downhill.

Naruto despite trying very hard to reduce all the drama in his life still found it hard to ignore the slight twinges of his heart when he saw Sasuke working hard at some experiment, his hand reaching up occasionally to tuck away that stray bit of hair. Of course, it was even harder to ignore the twinges from his cock.

The Dagger was not often fooled by Sasuke's raised eyebrow "come nearer and I'll chop you off" expression. Naruto had had the thought of propositioning Sasuke again many times over. Since "wanna fuck" had not given the desired results and had many unwanted side effects, Naruto had taken to practising in front of the mirror.

"Say Sasuke… if you let me fuck you just _once_, you know, to get it out of my system, I'm sure we'll be the best of friends…" No, that wouldn't go down too well.

"You know when one friend likes another friend… they become fuck buddies!" That one got axed too.

Then he thought of the perfect one. "You know the birds and the bees? Well sometimes two bees get together instead and…" Imagining the look on the TA's face quickly cut that one off too however. He treasured his balls.

* * *

Sasuke glared at nothing in particular. He was in the pets section of the supermarket. Why was he there? Because Kakashi was a manipulative git. He eyed the heavy bags of kibble, Pakkun was a small pug dog, and surely he didn't need that much? A sigh escaped his mouth, he was constantly reminded he was a guest at Kakashi's house. And a freeloader at that. Sasuke's glare intensified as he remembered the off hand remarks, the exaggerated sighs and that one smiling eye. He appreciated being allowed to stay, but he was slowly being driven mad.

The brunet had been staying with the professor for about a week now and it had been a long slow torturous week. Complete with 5am wake up calls with dynamic entries from Gai. The green beast has decided that the two men were distinctly lacking springtime youthfulness. Despite the fact that it wasn't spring and neither of them felt particularly youthful running in the park in the early hours of the morning trying rather pathetically to keep up. Well Sasuke had been trying to keep up, Kakashi kept mysteriously disappearing.

The Uchiha was shaken out his thoughts when he heard a loud commotion from a few aisles away. Ignoring it he went back to trying to pick which cat food would mostly likely poison Pakkun. That dog watched him while he slept. He just knew it.

The shouting grew louder as another voice was added in. A voice that he recognised.

Grabbing his trolley, he wheeled it along the aisle. It had been a while since he had seen the moron, not that he missed him, just that it had been a while. An amused smile crept across his lips as he watched the scene before him.

"You old hag, Mrs Chiyo! You know that flavour is my favourite!" Naruto's expression of outrage made Sasuke's lips twitch as the blond started gesturing widely. Although he was pouting like a five year old Sasuke couldn't help but appreciate the way the muscles in his arm shifted and moved under his T-shirt. The blond was dressed in retina-scarring orange and yet Sasuke didn't mind all that much.

The old lady in the wheelchair that Naruto was currently haggling with seemed to have a vice grip on a cup of instant noodles. "Brat! Respect your elders! I'm old! I could die any moment; don't you think it would be nice for me to have this as my last meal?" The woman smiled up sweetly at Naruto who seemed to be considering this.

"But…" Naruto's eyes went wide as Mrs Chiyo's form stilled and her eyes went glassy. "Mrs… Mrs Chiyo…?" Sasuke watched as Naruto's eyes turned a deep stunning blue.

Naruto waved his hand in front of her face and no response. He knelt down quickly, almost afraid to touch her, his face millimetres away from hers.

"Boo!"

Naruto's face turned bright red and Sasuke's smirk widened. "Mrs Chiyo! That's not funny!" The blond continued to rant away as the old lady giggled. Sasuke's smirk softened, this was obviously a frequently done routine.

"Brat! You have an admirer," Mrs Chiyo whispered loudly out of the corner of her mouth which caused Sasuke to automatically whip his head around to see just who was 'admiring' Naruto. His stomach clenched when he turned to see Naruto looking at him with a wicked grin.

Sasuke raised his eyebrow as the old lady took off in her wheelchair at a high speed, her lap piled with instant noodle cups. Naruto didn't seem to notice though; his gaze was fixated on the dark eyed man before him.

"Hey…" Naruto smiled warmly, scratching at the back of his neck which seemed to be a nervous twitch.

Sasuke's eyes were mentally tracing the symmetrical marks on Naruto's face. They were such a unique trait, deep smooth indentations that were too dark to be scars. 'How did you get those?' He wanted to ask. Of course he had noticed them before, but usually Naruto's eyes demanded that they look at him.

"You don't have to stare you know," Naruto growled, his eyebrows furrowed, and his mouth twisting slightly.

"I wasn't." Sasuke replied evenly. And an awkward silence passed over them. Since they had agreed to be friends not all that much had changed. Naruto had given him his space and Sasuke didn't know how to tell them it was ok, and that he didn't mind it when the blond talked, and that yeah, he was listening.

Naruto's expression turned confused. "What's with all the dog food?" He was eyeing Sasuke's trolley with bemusement. Just like that all the tension seemed to dwindle to being barely there. He marvelled at Naruto's ability to do that.

"I'm staying with Kakashi at the moment, he has a dog." Sasuke found himself speaking; he wanted to carry on talking to Naruto. During lectures he found it easier to give them if he wasn't concentrated on wondering if Naruto was there or not and in the labs there was too much work to do for idle talking.

"Eh? What are you staying with that pervert for?" Sasuke thought it was rich Naruto was calling Kakashi the pervert but made no comment on it. "We used to have a dog, Akamaru, but uh… my flatmate moved out." Naruto's face fell slightly, the vibrancy losing its shine.

And there was the awkward silence again.

Sasuke shifted a little. Of course the cogs had turned in his genius brain. He was desperate to move out of Kakashi's, but into Naruto's? Would he even offer? He needed his own room again, he needed his privacy again. He hadn't had much time to look for apartments and ones that were within his price range were too far away. **Yes! Lets move in with him, when he's sleeping we can sneak in and fuck his brains out. **Sasuke-whore didn't seem the slightest bit disturbed that he was suggesting rape.

"I… need a place to stay." He was having déjà vu.

Sasuke forced himself to look at the blond only to be met with Naruto's confused blue eyes. He sighed. This would be more difficult than standing up to his father.


	11. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am in no way associated with the owner and no copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

* * *

"_I… need a place to stay."_

Naruto's brain was doing several double takes. His heart was pounding at around a million beats per hour and he was fairly sure that was the same rate The Dagger was twitching. Taking a deep breath, he calmed both heart and cock down. Although his mind was still going 'huh?' switching it up a little with 'what the fuck?'

Naruto's eyes narrowed to slits as Sasuke started to explain exactly what he meant. Of course Naruto knew what Sasuke was asking, _why_ he was asking was what made his expression look so constipated. Naruto began to glare when Sasuke's speech slowed down a little, and his voice was raised ever so slightly.

What exactly was it about this bastard that evoked so many different emotions in the blond? One moment he wanted to pound his ass, the next he just wanted to pound on him. Naruto was disturbed to discover that he could quite happily do both at the same time.

Naruto was resisting the urge to growl now but his fists were clenched. His hot temper always seemed to get the better of him around the dark eyed man who was still calmly explaining to him that Professor Hatake was very 'difficult' to live with. Naruto was still coming to terms with this stupid friendship thing that he'd suggested to the asshole before him. And now the asshole wanted to move in with him.

"So since you have a spare room…" Sasuke trailed off uncertainly. Naruto looked carefully into the coal black eyes. Looking for some sort of give away that this was a trick, another way for Sasuke to humiliate him.

And then it hit him again.

The loneliness in Sasuke's eyes clear were as daylight to Naruto. How similar they were to Naruto's own baby blue ones. The feelings they echoed that the TA probably wasn't even aware of. Naruto could see it because he felt that depth of emotion all too well when he looked in the mirror every morning. Naruto could identify with whatever was going on in Sasuke. His past was a heavy burden and it looked like Sasuke was carrying one too now. He could almost see his reflection in Sasuke's eyes, and his anger faded away.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Sasuke spoke bluntly, starting Naruto out of his calm. The asshole would think, since he was asking such a huge favour of Naruto, he could be a little nicer.

"No reason."

They stood in silence for a while longer. Naruto with his new found calm in life and Sasuke getting increasingly uncomfortable.

"Sure." Naruto's heart fluttered a little as the word escaped his mouth, containing himself, trying a little too hard to remain cool and offhand.

"What?" Sasuke actually looked somewhat bewildered at Naruto's response. Naruto grinned. It was good to see Sasuke looking a little ruffled.

"You can move in with me."

And there was that damn eyebrow again.

"Just get your shit together and here is the address to your new place." Naruto stepped closer and reached for Sasuke's hand containing the notepad with a shopping list on it and a pen attached.

Their fingers would have brushed in a pleasant sensation, probably sending tingles up their arms. But no, instead, Naruto was too busy trying to snatch the notebook which Sasuke was holding on to with a death grip.

"Bastard… let… go…!"

Finally wrenching it out of the pale fingers, Naruto recomposed his nonchalant manner. He glanced down at the notepad and started snickering. On one side was a long list of the various types of dog food and on the other was an even longer list of hair products that had all been scribbled out.

He bit his tongue as he wrote down the address on a small corner, amused eyes glancing up to see twitching ones. Sasuke grabbed the list back when Naruto had finished.

"I'll be there later this evening," Sasuke murmured, wheeling the trolley in the opposite direction.

Even though Sasuke was once again walking away from him. The image of that night at the restaurant didn't superimpose on this one. Yes, Naruto still wanted to grab out at him, but his heart wasn't heavy. The mood wasn't dark and there was one last ramen cup at the back of the shelf and that alone indicated reason for hope.

"Hair products are on aisle four!"

Sasuke didn't turn back, simply responded with the middle finger.

* * *

Sasuke was rubbing his temples which indicated the level of his frustration at that moment. He had just informed Kakashi that he had found a place to stay and the man was ignoring him for porn.

"Mmm, alright" Kakashi was currently sprawled out on the couch, his feet propped up on the arm rest and his cloth covered nose an inch away from a worn green book.

"Well ok then… bye." Sasuke turned to start with the process of packing up his belongings. It wouldn't take long as he practically lived out of a suitcase at the moment.

"Have you told Gai?"

Sasuke paused mid-step, his back stiffening. No. Kakashi wouldn't do that to him. Well indeed he would. Sasuke turned to see Kakashi flip open his phone. He was sat upright now, his legs spread in a lazy position as he scratched his head with one hand. With the other hand holding the mobile, his thumb was flying across the digits of the phone.

A text. His escape plan had been ruined with a text.

* * *

Naruto was flying around his apartment. The moment Sasuke had left his sight completely, what he had done had dawned on him. He had invited Sasuke to come live with him. And he hadn't completely thought it through. He had just been thinking how nice it would be to live with someone again. But Sasuke was not to be replacement for Kiba.

And then of course he had remembered the state of his apartment. No food in the cupboards. Clothes everywhere, clean and dirty alike. Not to mention the dishes that had been left for so long they were now an eco environment. He didn't want to offer Sasuke a place to live only for him to walk in, take one look at the place and walk straight back out. Naruto had standards. He just never had guests all that often.

That was why Naruto was flying. He wasn't doing a very good job because he kept tripping over some object on the floor. Pizza boxes, clothes, Christmas tree lights. It seemed that the more he tried to clear the mess, the more of it developed. It was like a mutating alien. One that Naruto would defeat.

When Kiba arrived however Naruto was losing the battle. The moment the brunet had managed to make his way through the door. He had his arms full of a far too heavy blond wearing yellow washing up gloves. They had started babbling at each other immediately. Naruto with his legs wrapped around Kiba's waist, holding on to his ex flat-mate for dear life.

"I need help!" Naruto shook Kiba's head by his hair.

"I need to hide!" Kiba wasn't quite sure where to put his hands.

Naruto was soon quickly dumped on the floor, it was a soft landing. They talked over each other for ten minutes not really registering what the other was saying. That was until Naruto had had enough and clamped his yellow-gloved hand over Kiba's mouth and proceeded to talk at him in that manner.

"Sasuke is coming here!" Naruto conveniently forgot to mention the reason why.

The blond then started babbling about how the cleaning product Mr Muscle really doesn't do the jobs you hate. Kiba managed to listen for a while before slapping his own hand over Naruto's mouth and in turn talking to him.

"Hinata's dad and Neji don't know we've moved in together!" Kiba's problem was much higher on the Richter scale. "And, I _think_ he kinda,_sorta _might have found out…"

Naruto's eyes reduced to slits. "How?"

"It's… uh… just a feeling I have…yeah."

* * *

In the matter of an hour, Maito Gai had assembled an impromptu leaving party for Sasuke. Complete with his student Rock Lee, whom he was teaching how to bake the perfect soufflé in Kakashi's kitchen. Asuma and Kurenai had also stopped by. Maito Green Beast Gai was a force to be reckoned with. They were all now standing aimlessly around with 'hip' pop music blaring out the speakers and vodka-less punch in their hands.

Sasuke's grasp on his glass was getting dangerously tight. He still hadn't managed to pack his things, as few as they were, and it had just gone nine. Gai had somehow coerced them into playing various board games. The most recent of which had been particularly scarring.

The game was called Twister. A large plastic sheet with coloured dots was placed on the floor. The idea was with the aide of a spinner which instructed for each person where certain body parts had to be placed on certain coloured dots. The results had been horrifying.

The remaining two had of course been the Green Beast duo. Sasuke was completely certain at one point, when Kakashi told Gai that the spinner indicated left hand to a red dot that he was being mentally tortured by the silver-haired Professor. The two had ended up in a very provocative position of standing up doggy style. Gai's green spandex had stretched across his buttocks and outlined his prominent balls.

Sasuke had started gulping down his punch when his eyes presented him with that view, completely forgetting that it wasn't spiked.

Sasuke set his glass down on the table when that visual swam before his eyes for the fiftieth time in the past minute. He ignored the way all eyes zeroed in on him as we walked self-assuredly towards his suitcases sat by the sofa. He needed to get going. It was already late and he as much as he didn't want to admit it, he needed to stay on Naruto's good side. Which in retrospect might have been a little too late.

He began stuffing whatever belongings he could find into his suitcase, continuing to ignore the way Kakashi's one eye was no longer fixated on his porn, or the way Asuma's cigarette was little more than a stub hanging off his bottom lip.

He walked into the bathroom, brushing past Kurenai who was on her way out and began collecting his belongings from there.

Once everything was packed, he turned to face the three seated on the couch. Hoping Gai's soufflé would keep him occupied.

"I'm going now. Thank you for letting me stay." He nodded in Kakashi's direction. Who only glanced up from his porn momentarily before returning to his novel.

The masked Professor spoke though as Sasuke turned away.

"Have you said goodbye to Gai?"

Every muscle on Sasuke's back pulled taut, and then his shoulders visibly slumped.

* * *

It wasn't good when Naruto panicked, and it certainly wasn't good when Kiba panicked. Being together panicking wasn't exactly a sensible idea either. Naruto was still running around his apartment like a headless chicken trying his best to tidy. While Kiba followed, talking at high speed about what had happened.

"So it was going great right?" Kiba was explaining the extravagant setting he had laid out for his first time with Hinata. "And she was so beautiful!"

Naruto wasn't really listening. If Kiba was going to continue describing Hinata as 'beautiful' or 'heavenly angel' he wasn't interested. He had already learnt his lesson for asking her size, so right now he had to concentrate on his immediate problem. He didn't want to even think about what he had to do his bathroom.

Dumping some cleaning products in the brunet's hands, he nodded along while scrubbing at the kitchen floor. He may have been going a little overboard with this cleaning frenzy, but he didn't want to give Sasuke any reason to think his place wasn't good enough. It had nothing to do with the fact that he actually really liked the idea of Sasuke staying there with him. No. He just didn't want that arrogant asshole walking off for what would probably feel like the twentieth time.

"And I managed to escape in time, we heard him park his car outside and I took the stairs, and you should have seen me Naruto, I put James Bond to shame. Inuzuka, Kiba Inuzka." Naruto rolled his eyes as Kiba made a show of slicking his hair back.

"But then, Hinata called me, and she said he was looking for me, and I just know he knows… _you have to help me hide_." There was that panic again and it only made Naruto scrub harder. "He does karate!"

"Kiba, Sasuke is coming over. Look at this place, and it's all your fault as well. Get scrubbing dog boy or I'm going to give Neji an anonymous phone call. Move. Now." Naruto growled out, throwing a scrubbing sponge at Kiba who bared his canines in retaliation.

But it did get them into action after Kiba explicitly told Naruto that if Neji did stop over he was to lie his ass off. That proved to be a wise promise to extract from the university student turned cleaning lady.

* * *

Hyuuga Neji was furious. White hot rage flowed through him all the way down to his fingertips. He drove his car with quick sharp turns, yanking the steering wheel from side to side, paying no attention to traffic lights, his foot pressed hard and consistently against the accelerator.

His mind flashed back to what had happened just an hour ago as his fingers gripped harder onto the wheel, white and bloodless. He couldn't believe he had been so stupid. The Hyuuga had been paying his baby cousin a visit in the evening, to see if she wanted to go out for dinner.

Neji smacked the horn as a car blared by, more out of frustration than to tell the idiot driver to watch it. Pushing a hand through his loose locks he took a deep breath. It wouldn't do to be seen as some depraved maniac. Uncle Hiashi had entrusted Hinata's well being to him. Since her father lived so far away and she had so desperately wanted to attend the same university as her cousin. Hiashi had relented, on the grounds that Neji was to make sure his daughter, heiress to his fortune was protected suitably. And clearly, Neji hadn't been doing a very good job.

Hinata had answered the door, beet root red and stuttering worse than ever. If that wasn't a smoke signal for danger Neji didn't know what was. It hadn't taken him to long to piece together that Inuzuka had been paying more attention than necessary to his cousin. The hastily put out candles and the sound track to Titanic still playing softly in the background had also been a dead giveaway. Neji had internally hit the roof. Outside he had calmly instructed Hinata to put on something more suitable while he methodically tore up the apartment looking for the brunet who had been attempting to violate a member of his family.

The only other place that Neji could think of was Uzumaki's place. He had already stopped by the Union bar with no luck of getting information out of the lazy barman who would mutter troublesome every so often under his breath.

He brought the car to a stop, smoothly slid out, slamming the door while straightening his jacket. To business. More specifically, the castration of one Inuzuka Kiba.

* * *

Sasuke's perfect eyebrows furrowed as he made his way to Naruto's home. He hadn't needed a map as he was aware of the location of the housing complex and knew it to be close to the university. However currently he was receiving little shocks up and down his spine. It was like permanently having déjà vu. And it was irritating him. He had been in this area before. He just couldn't remember when, why or how. And it was irritating him.

He located the building number that matched the one scribbled on the shopping list. Uzumaki's handwriting really was appalling.

* * *

"Neji! What uh brings you here?" Naruto plastered a smile across his face, one he had learnt from Sakura which was meant to be completely deceiving. Only Neji just brushed past him.

"Inuzuka is here." His movements were smooth and fluid but his eyes were scanning across the apartment as if he had x-ray vision. Naruto didn't doubt that he had, and Neji probably wouldn't use it for good like Superman.

"What? That's crazy talk!" Naruto tried to pull his arm away from his neck where he had automatically started scratching in reflex.

"He lives here, does he not?" Neji turned his freakishly pale eyes on Naruto, and the blond's automatic reaction was to cringe slightly.

"He's staying with his sister! In France!" What Kiba's sister and France had to do with anything was anyone's guess.

"You won't mind if I have a look around then will you?" Neji turned away from Naruto to start towards the bedrooms at the back.

"Uh…" Naruto's eyes widened with every step Neji took towards the bedroom. "That's trespassing!" Neji turned, a black eyebrow rising.

"Say Neji, while you're here… you seem like the cleanliness is next to Godliness kind of guy, wanna help me clean?"

And the eyebrow kept on rising. White eyes fully taking in Naruto dressed in old sweats and a t-shirt, a plastic apron wrapped around his waist and yellow rubber gloves on his hands.

"I could really use some help, the bathroom is the worst. Here if I get you some toilet bleach, maybe you could start in there?" Naruto's eyes went impossible large.

"I see you have your hands full here Naruto. I'll be going." Neji's mouth curled slightly in disgust as he made his exit. Naruto was quite tempted to stop the Hyuuga and con him into helping. But he was certain Kiba, who was currently cowering under Naruto's bed, wouldn't appreciate it.

* * *

He stalked along the corridors, paying no heed to the man with the long black hair walking past him. Reaching the door he knocked with three sharp taps.

The door opened. Uzumaki's face appeared. Bellowed in Sasuke's own face.

"For the last time Neji! Kiba is not here! Stop coming back unless you're gonna help me clean!"

The door slammed shut again.

Sasuke blinked slowly. He counted to five.

The door reopened. Naruto's face reappeared. His cheeks were tinged with red. "Uh… Sasuke…. Welcome!" And then a bright grin was plastered across his face as he stepped aside to let the TA in.

Sasuke gave the blond a cool look as he entered. The apartment was different to how he remembered it, it was almost obscenely clean

* * *

They had been arguing for twenty minutes now and all Naruto wanted to do was shove Sasuke in his own room, and try to wash away the smell of bleach off his hands. It hadn't helped when Kiba had emerged from beneath his bed waving a part of Naruto's porn collection around exclaiming that Naruto had been 'holding out' on him. If anything it had only made Sasuke more irritated with him.

Naruto slumped down on the sofa. He was tired of arguing now. It wasn't until five minutes later that he registered that Sasuke had stopped talking as well and that silence reigned in the immaculate apartment. They sat there in their silence with Naruto now itching to break it.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke spoke first. Naruto turned to look at the brunet sat stiffly at one side of the furniture. If Sasuke's damn loneliness or whatever it was that Naruto kept seeing in his dark eyes would just stop hitting him in chest every time he was caught unaware then maybe Naruto could stop wanting too.

"It's fine, come on, I'll show you to your room." This had to work out. Naruto suddenly felt like there was so much more riding on this then just his friendship with the Uchiha.

* * *

Naruto woke up to sounds emanating from his kitchen. Rubbing at his face, he pushed aside the covers. Padding out of his room he went in the direction of the light, his feet leading him while his brain went into a half conscious state.

He stopped at the entrance to the kitchen to see Sasuke there. He had forgotten Sasuke was there, he had thought it had been another brunet.

The Uchiha hadn't noticed him standing in the doorway and Naruto was in no rush to make his presence known. It felt nice not to be arguing with Sasuke, even if the idiot didn't know they weren't arguing.

The TA had the fridge open and he was putting three plastic bottles of water into it. But Naruto wasn't concentrating on that. He shifted to lean against the frame of the door as he watched the way the refrigerator light illuminated Sasuke's ethereal face. It highlighted the paleness of his skin and showed the blue undertones of his hair and eyes. No one had ever looked so good in fridge light. Naruto's mouth hung open a little as he continued with his voyeur antics.

"Naruto, you've been standing there for a while now, it's rude to stare." Sasuke's voice was soft spoken as he moved things around in the fridge to accommodate the bottles.

Naruto automatically glared as he met Sasuke's amused eyes. But it soon fell away to a sheepish smile.

He walked over and hopped onto the bench beside the fridge, holding the door open.

"I like to drink cold water," Sasuke explained at the unasked question. Naruto nodded.

"You can have most of the shelves if you like, but the cupboards are mine for ramen," Naruto rested his arm on the fridge door, the cold causing goose bumps across the skin of his arms.

His eyes made contact with Sasuke's dark ones, and then dropped to his lips. The Uchiha's mouth suddenly seemed so much closer. Naruto's tongue darted out to lick his own when Sasuke turned away to put a bottle in.

Sasuke turned back, bottle in hand, leaning in further to push the bottle to the back, he turned slightly and then it occurred again; the mouth was so close. He could make out the shape of it, the light causing a greater contrast between the soft and dark tones. This time Sasuke didn't turn away, his eyes weren't amused, and there was no arrogant stance to his eyebrows. Sasuke lent in a little, the gap closing slowly between them.

Sasuke was so close. Too close. He could feel the Uchiha's breath on his face now, warm and even. If he leaned in a little more, their lips could brush. Their mouths could mesh and it would be different from their kisses before. Because Sasuke wasn't pushing him away. Dark eyes were watching his as the gap grew smaller, his mouth drew close, and his nose was almost touching the skin of a pale cheek.

Naruto froze though.

Sasuke stumbled slightly when the fridge door was pushed towards him, causing him to step back as Naruto got off the bench.

"I better get back to bed, got an early lecture tomorrow, night!"

"…Night."


	12. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am in no way associated with the owner and no copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

**Chapter 11**

* * *

_**Day 1**_

Sasuke turned and tossed that night. His pillow had been repeatedly punched and then thrown against the door in a fit of irrational anger before he had collected himself and literally willed himself into slumber. He honestly hadn't known what he'd been thinking when that incident had happened. Nothing had happened really, it's not like they had had wild monkey sex on the kitchen floor. But that warm breath against his lips had felt more intimate than anything he had ever experienced. Naruto had watched him with such innocence reflected in his eyes that he couldn't help leaning closer, wanting more contact with the idiot because it had simply seemed right. Things hadn't felt right in a long time.

What disturbed him more than his own actions of leaning forward was that Naruto had moved away. Pushed away. After all that time of the blond crushing so heavily on him, the moron now decided to change his mind. It was just as well then that Sasuke hadn't given in to his own hormones. Things would almost certainly have ended up even more disastrous. Not that his situation currently was particularly good either. He still hadn't contacted Itachi to let him know that he was alright, though that worked vice versa for Itachi hadn't bothered to check up on him. It irked Sasuke, though really not as much as it normally would have. He had never had a normal kind of relationship with the other Uchiha brother and more often than not had felt like a pawn in Itachi's sick game of life and chess.

Sasuke turned in between the sheets; the duvet had been kicked off earlier in the night. His eyes remained closed. Despite being wide awake he was not quite ready to greet the sunshine he could see as an orange glow against his eyelids. Getting up meant seeing Naruto, but what seeing Naruto would mean he didn't know.

Eventually his need for caffeine made itself known. Swinging his legs out of the bed he grabbed the pair of loose pants that had met the same fate of the duvet in the night. Paying no heed to the cool air against his bare chest he set off for his mission.

However pretty soon Sasuke came across a stumbling block. His ritual of making love to his early morning cup of coffee remained incomplete. He had searched the entire kitchen from top to bottom, and yet there wasn't a granule of coffee to be found anywhere. Nothing remotely resembling caffeine. The shelves had been stacked full on instant noodle cups. Having repeatedly moved at an indescribable speed through the contents of the kitchen Sasuke was able to discern a pattern. The ramen noodles had been organised according to flavour, size, colour and brand. The half naked Uchiha stood in the centre of the kitchen blinking in a sort of shock at the open shelves.

"_The cupboards are mine for ramen,"_ **No shit. **

He turned as Naruto came shuffling in dressed only in his boxer shorts while rubbing at his eyes. Sasuke was of two minds at that moment. One thought was that he was now sharing an apartment with what appeared to be the god of sex. The other thought was that he was now sharing an apartment with someone who by now must be entirely composed of instant noodles. His sex god was made up of noodles. Sasuke fought the urge to laugh at the weirdness he felt. It all felt suddenly so strange, living with Naruto would be an interesting experience at the very least.

"Its six am, asshole, what's with all the racket?!" Naruto growled in a voice rough with sleep and his eyes still squinty trying to take in the minimum amount of light in.

Sasuke drank in the sight before him. Naruto had beautifully defined abs and his eyes zeroed in on them committing the picture to memory. The little definition above his hips acted like arrows along with the golden trail of hair that lead from his belly button to the abrupt stop of the waistband of his grey boxers.

"You don't have coffee." Sasuke collected himself before Naruto caught him staring.

"What's your point?" Naruto grumbled while scratching at his cheek, blue eyes peeking out between his squint. They suddenly enlarged though as if his brain had suddenly processed a large amount of information.

Sasuke watched in amusement as Naruto's eyes raked his torso. So perhaps the idiot hadn't gotten over his attraction quite yet. His eyebrow rose when Naruto's eyes finally moved up to meet his. The other jumped slightly, his eyes enormous as both hands went to cover his crotch. Nothing had really been showing and it really was for the betterment of both parties that Sasuke-whore only woke up after caffeine.

"WowI'mrunninglatebettergogetreadyforuni!" Naruto managed to speak in shrill tone before retreating, his hand coming to cover his ass as he turned and walking rapidly out of the kitchen.

The corner of Sasuke's mouth twitched upwards as he appreciated the view of fluid back muscles beneath smooth skin. His smirk remained in place but a certain fondness had entered into the black depths of his eyes.

* * *

_**Day 3**_

Naruto's throat made a deep rumbling sound as he expressed his displeasure. His staring contest continued and he poked his enemy with a finger. That would show them that Uzumaki Naruto would not quit. No response again. He poked harder, his index finger stiff as he jabbed in triumph. Nothing. Letting out a frustrated yell he picked up his adversary and shook it before placing it down again and dusting off the sides.

The piece of technology that was currently the bane of Naruto's existence beeped at him. Naruto felt his blood boil. Macs. Were. Stupid. He didn't care in the slightest that their renowned technology made data analysis ten times faster. He wanted his Dell back. Naruto pouted at the screen.

"I will defeat you," he whispered ominously at it. It beeped again which caused Naruto to jump and shake his fist at it, "believe it!"

He was currently in the lab attempting to input data on to Kakashi's Mac. The professor had decided that it was best to get Naruto all trained up and had asked that he come in when he was free to be shown around and how to use the equipment. Naruto had been more than happy to do this as Kakashi rarely turned up on time and mostly he could spend the hours catching up on his coursework.

There was also the Sasuke factor.

Sasuke was usually around the lab working at something. And it was the only time that Naruto could just take in his fill of the Uchiha without being caught staring. It was hard for him to be in the brunet's presence all the time when at home. There was still that awkwardness that hung around them. The other morning's mishap hadn't helped. Naruto knew now that his behaviour and thoughts were unhealthy, but that didn't stop him in the slightest from feeling. He had experienced all types of emotions but what he felt for Sasuke was new and un-chartered. The butterflies in his stomach quickly became signs that The Dagger was waking up. Naruto now tended to wear loose cargo pants.

Naruto could control this though. Sasuke had made it clear that he wasn't interested. The damn Uchiha was always so calm and collected around him. The incident in the kitchen was etched in his memory, but he knew it to be a random fluke, some twist that jumbled his feelings so that he felt unsteady.

They weren't comfortable yet but they were getting there. Whenever Sasuke smiled, which was albeit quite rare, Naruto could never suppress the surge of happiness that flooded him and that he could do that to the stoic Uchiha. It was a times like those that Naruto realised how bad he had it.

At the lab, Naruto could glare at the duck-butt hair all he liked. It made him grin every time Sasuke turned around, probably feeling the holes boring into the back of his skull, only to find Naruto studiously looking away.

His current problem though wasn't Sasuke. It was the damn laptop that wouldn't listen to him. Naruto scrunched up his face. He was tempted to just jab all the keys at random and click away with the mouse, which more often than not refused to work. Kakashi had finally given him work to do and Naruto couldn't even get started, his frustrations were hitting a peak.

He glanced around in search of help and suddenly became aware that during his intense heated battle with the laptop, that he was alone in the lab. The post-docs had packed up and left, he had probably missed their waved goodbyes. Naruto got up and walked by Kakashi's office. He peered in through the little window pane to see the man sitting in the dark at his computer with his feet propped up. His beloved Icha Icha series lay against his chest and he appeared to be sleeping. Naruto shook his head. **Heh, pervert. **Turning back to the war, it seemed he wouldn't have back up on this one.

Sasuke was standing by Naruto's assigned desk when the blond returned. The Mac had brought reinforcements.

"Need help turning it on?" The amused voice fuelled Naruto's unnecessary anger. Stupid Uchiha asshole was always so damn smug. And pretty. Smug and pretty Naruto decided were an incredibly bad combination. The Dagger disagreed though as it stirred slightly at the sound of the low voice.

"Nope, I'm an expert," Naruto lied through his teeth as he entered into Sasuke's personal space to get back to his seat. The brunet stepped back at the last moment, that infuriating smirk firmly remaining.

Naruto settled back into his swivelling chair and glared hard at the blank screen. He threaded his fingers and pushed his hands outwards to stretch the joints and then brought them back towards him to crack his knuckles. He glanced to the side to see Sasuke remaining standing there his face impassive expect for the slight upward twitch of his lips.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him and Naruto raised two in retaliation.

A full five minutes later, Naruto out of utter desperation and will had managed to open up the data sheets. Except now the copy and paste shortcuts weren't working and double clicking did nothing.

"Let me know when you're ready to accept my help, Uzumaki," Sasuke had moved once again to sit with his back to Naruto at his own desk. Naruto glanced to glare at the dark head of hair, gave him the finger and went back to his problem.

"I saw that."

Naruto started and then frowned, Sasuke wasn't usually this talkative.

"Quit yapping and start helping then," Naruto shot back, grinning at the back stiffening. He watched in surprise as Sasuke swiftly got out of his seat and made his way over. He looked properly at the Uchiha and saw that his lab coat was undone revealing his jeans and dark shirt. Naruto was amused to see that Sasuke was holding back the long locks of hair at the front with his glasses pushed up on his head like an Alice band. He didn't look so put together and Naruto preferred him this way. He seemed more at ease.

Sasuke moved to stand behind him and took the mouse from his grip.

Naruto really wasn't paying attention to the instructions Sasuke was murmuring. His lips were so close to his ear that he was having trouble concentrating. Naruto took a deep breath and tried to pay attention to the words, but breathing deep only helped inhale the masculine scent of Sasuke. The TA wasn't being intentionally close, he was concentrating on the screen, and his voice was usually this low. However combined with the body heat radiating from the pale man it felt like all the lights had been dimmed and sexy sultry music was playing in the background.

"And if you use this shortcut," Sasuke tapped a few keys, "then it's immediately converted."

Naruto was honest to god trying to pay attention, but Sasuke was leaning over his shoulder and the weight of him was all he could focus on. His eyes stared at the shape of Sasuke's ear and the even jaw line leaning away from him. He could see an expanse of smooth pale skin and the side view of dark eyelashes framing an equally dark iris.

Naruto swallowed. It didn't feel like there was enough air.

"That's odd," Sasuke tapped away at the keyboard again, "Hn. Kakashi would rename everything with an Icha Icha character," Sasuke scoffed his mouth curving up. "Click on Rahoul for the first data set and... Naruto, are you listening?"

"Huh?" Naruto gulped in more air again as Sasuke's head turned so he was presented with more of the Uchiha's profile. The straight angles of his nose were lines of perfection. Naruto was mesmerised as the mouth parted and if he leaned forward he could smell the coffee on his breath, and if moved in further he'd probably be able to taste it. Coffee would taste good in Sasuke's mouth. His lips looked soft, a light pink colour that Naruto felt he should write poetry about.

The mouth stopped moving, the thin eyebrow was lowered, and pupils dilated. They seemed to be on the same page now.

"_Dynamic entry!_" And with that short phrase Naruto's world was crushed. He slumped down, quite tempted to hit his head on the keyboard.

Sasuke seemed to be a little shaken too, his glasses were back down shielding the view of his eyes slightly and he was buttoning up his lab coat as if reminding himself who and where he was.

"Gai, Kakashi is in his office." Sasuke spoke shortly.

"Ah pupil of my rival! Thank you! Working hard I see, it is late but the springtime of youth waits for no man! Continue and perhaps afterwards you would like to join Lee and I on a run around the city?" Professor Maito spoke loudly while jogging on the spot and pumping his fists.

Gai clapped Sasuke on the shoulder who managed to contain his wince before jogging off to his opponent's office, every ten steps stopping to do a star jump.

"I'll see you at home," Sasuke muttered before quickly collecting his things and heading for the door. Naruto wanted to stop him. Demand that the Uchiha explain himself when really it was him that had lost control. He glared in the direction of the now empty desk. His resolve would need to be strengthened.

* * *

_**Day 5**_

Sasuke's eye was twitching. He couldn't believe he was actually here, in a bowling alley having a staring contest with Gaara; the weirdo that lived opposite them. Sat on top of Gaara's red hair was the party hat that Naruto had stuck on him signifying why they were there.

It was an impromptu celebration of Gaara's birthday. Sasuke scowled at the memory of it. He had been happily watching Naruto sleep on the sofa, after the snoring and drooling had stopped and the blond had settled into deep slumber he was actually quite sweet to watch. Of course there was the occasional leg spasm and the moaning of 'Dagger no!' which Sasuke didn't know quite what to make of and thought it best not to ask. His afternoon of whiling away his weekend with creepy watching and Sasuke-whores commentary and subtle suggestions of rape had abruptly been ruined. Kankuro had entered the apartment announcing the birth of his little brother which immediately had Naruto up and running around. Sasuke was positive that the elder brother had other motives for doing this but didn't have proof. And so Gaara was deposited at their apartment and that was Sasuke's first meeting of the anti-Gai.

The meeting had not gone well. There had been a lot staring, time spent with both men with their arms crossed, eyebrow and non-existent eyebrow raised. As Naruto had broken out into singing Happy Birthday for Gaara, Sasuke could have sworn the red-head had softly spoken the words 'I will kill you' before turning his attention back to the singing blond who was racking the apartment for alcohol.

Now they sat in their bowling booth. Naruto was currently up and Sasuke was torn between appreciating the fine ass presented to him and continuing his ongoing staring contest with the small man opposite.**What's the matter with you? If he bends over one more time and we're not fucking him into the floor, this is the end of us. **Sasuke-whore was making death threats; little thing couldn't understand what was so appealing about imagining plucking out Gaara's light green eyes and stamping on them.

Naruto's other friends, Sakura and Lee had also joined them when Naruto had decided that bowling was the way to go. He had forgotten that Gaara's medication didn't mix well with alcohol which meant going to a bar wasn't a good idea. Sasuke was certain they hadn't gone to the cinema because the horror films which Gaara was most likely to have chosen would probably give the little freak ideas.

Bowling had seemed like good wholesome fun. Except Sasuke was hard. There were only so many times that he could watch Naruto's ritual of kissing the bowling ball and bending over at a certain position for two minutes and then rolling before his dick started getting ideas about the ass presented.

It was a weird sensation flicking back between a muscled ass and dead green eyes which conveyed malicious intent. It felt like his cock was a yo yo, retreating and then returning at the sight of what it felt was it's soul mate.

"Yes! Beat that asshole!" Between his cock's dilemma, Sasuke had also been competing with Naruto for the high score. Both were to blame for the flying insults, though the Uchiha had yet to stoop to sabotage. Sasuke was off his game though, every time he was up he was distracted because he wanted to turn and make sure that Gaara and Naruto kept everything family safe. He didn't trust the red-head, the green eyes softened around the blond and Sasuke hadn't failed to notice that. He wasn't buying the platonic friendship crap. Naruto really needed to stop hugging the other pale man before Sasuke aimed his ball at the red head instead. That would feel satisfying.

Sasuke stood for his turn, ignoring the thumbs up from Lee and picked out a ball to fit his slim fingers. He scowled at the "S" indicating the small fit; everything seemed to be a blow to his ego today.

He refrained from growling and ran his hands through his hair while casually checking the score. He needed a strike and he needed one soon. He eyed the pins and mentally calculated the angle he needed. Exhaling, he released. Six pins were knocked down, two wobbled dangerously before standing firm. Sasuke narrowed his eyes, sheer force of his glare should have levelled them, and the pins of all the other games as well.

He waited for his ball to return, not bothering to turn around despite Lee's encouraging remarks. The next roll was a gutter ball.

Sasuke took his seat back, next to Naruto and raised an eyebrow at the blond, daring him to say anything. Naruto mimed zipping his mouth shut and throwing away the key. Despite himself, Sasuke smiled. This caused Naruto to grin in return before he clapped Gaara on the back and pushed him off for his turn. Sasuke's smile turned upside down.

Gaara dropped the bowling ball and then returned to his seat. This seemed to be an acquired style as the ball rolled incredibly slowly towards its destination, remaining dead centre and knocked out all the pins. Naruto and Lee whooped and amidst their cheering Sasuke growled.

In the end it was Sakura who won. The girl with such freaky strength had the ball powering along, bouncing along the wooden planks to smash into the white pins. He did not think much of the girl until he noticed the scores and then how Naruto flinched every time she punched him in the arm with what appeared to be cute girl punches but were most likely quite deadly.

Sasuke, Naruto and Gaara walked back to their apartment. It would have been a nice evening walk; the sun had just disappeared leaving one last glow over the buildings and trees. However the uncomfortable silence which seemed to be something that clung to Gaara hadn't left no matter what Naruto was chattering about.

Finally depositing the red-head back at his own apartment, Sasuke moved to lie on the sofa.

"Well that was fun," Naruto grinned in his direction before shifting down to sit on the floor with his back leaning against the cushions and his head near Sasuke's propped up legs.

Sasuke felt the statement merited no answer.

"I think Gaara had fun," it appeared Naruto was determined to have a conversation.

"Indeed," Sasuke muttered turning on his side so that he could look at Naruto's face.

"I had fun, did you have fun?" Naruto's spiky hair was brushing against his jeans, he couldn't feel it but the sight of it felt nice.

"Naruto?" sleep was settling on the Uchiha.

"Yeah?" he caught sight of Naruto's azure eyes before his own closed

"Shut up." Sasuke murmured as the image of blue swam before his eyes, entering into his dreams.

* * *

_**Day 7**_

Sasuke was doing laundry. Sasuke had never done laundry in his life. He wasn't so foolish as to think clothes were self-cleaning, but at the present moment he was fervently hoping they would be.

He and Naruto were down in the basement of the apartment building where the laundry room was located. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Naruto started separating out his clothes in some unknown pattern. He could do this. Uchiha Sasuke was gifted with photographic memory. He could do this.

When he had lived with Itachi, they had simply employed someone to do that, along with the cooking and cleaning. Sasuke had quickly learnt that if he wanted the apartment clean he was going to have to do it himself. His first impression of Naruto's apartment had been woefully misguiding. When he had stayed at Kakashi's place, there had been Gai. Kakashi merely had to bet who could do their laundry the fastest then place his with Gai's when the green beast wasn't looking. Sasuke knew that Gai wasn't _that_ stupid, as to miss something like that, but it seemed to be some sort of rival ritual between them. He wondered briefly if that would work with Uzumaki but felt he'd more likely get a punch in the face that anything else.

"You wanna chuck your load in with mine?" Naruto asked causing Sasuke to choke.

Naruto turned to see Sasuke was still standing there looking bemusedly at his laundry bag resting on the washing machine.

Naruto looked amused. "Well well well, the great Uchiha can't do laundry." Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and grinned widely.

"Yes I can, idiot." Sasuke glared, and then turned the glare back at the laundry bag. Self cleaning clothes, that's what his PhD should be based on.

Naruto shrugged, "suit yourself," and he pulled at the orange T-shirt he was wearing and sniffed at it. Once Sasuke had returned said T-shirt to him, he'd rarely seen him without it, saying he had missed it because 'stupid Uchiha assholes' weren't courteous enough to return things that don't belong to them.

Sasuke watched with a slight smirk on his face as Naruto proceeded to sniff at his armpit to check the T-shirts sell by date; it was way over due. His smirk fell away though when Naruto's arms reached over his head and began pulling the T-shirt off. The blond pulled it off quickly to reveal his torso. He stuffed the item into the washing machine, closing it shut and pressing a few buttons.

They had managed to avoid another half naked incident much to Sasuke-whore's dismay, both had become hyper aware that half nakedness, or complete nakedness was a no-no and had taken great pains to make sure they were fully clothed; Naruto now slept in pyjamas with orange spiral prints on them. Sasuke hated those pyjamas.

Dark eyes were soaking up all the creamy gold skin and the definition of Naruto's biceps. Naruto's jeans hung low on his hips so that orange boxers peeked out. Naruto didn't seem so self aware this time, his tongue was peeking out as he poured in a measured amount of washing powder into a cup.

It was in that instant that several things happened, Sasuke's resolve completely melted away, a surge of hormones flooded his blood stream, and Sasuke-whore momentarily sat in the driver's seat.

Sasuke moved without thinking. He crossed the few steps that it took for him to reach Naruto and before the blond could do so much as squeak; Sasuke had turned him so that he was backed up against the driers behind.

Sasuke saw blue eyes go wide before he crashed his mouth on to the lips opposite.


	13. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am in no way associated with the owner and no copyright infringement is intended.  
**

* * *

**Chapter 12**

* * *

Naruto's eyes remained large as Sasuke's mouth worked earnestly against his. After a few moments of the smooth, light coloured lips pressed harshly against his, Sasuke withdrew finally registering the lack of response. It was not that Naruto didn't want to make contact with the mouth that had only a few seconds ago been pressed so intimately with his; it was just that he hadn't been expecting it.

Sasuke's hands slipped from where they gripped his wrists above his head as an awkward silence settled over them. His face became strangely blank as he moved to put some distance between their bodies.

Naruto forced a grin out which slipped away quickly as Sasuke turned. So he hadn't known how to react, but there was a pulsing in his penis and anger punctuating the dull throb at his temples. He growled internally as the feelings he had spent so much time repressing, ignoring, clawed the surface of his inner thoughts and bombarded him with the simultaneous want of grabbing Sasuke back, shoving his tongue down his throat and then maybe punching him.

Sasuke's shoulders had tensed up; Naruto hoped the asshole could feel the force of his glare as he channelled out the muddle of various feelings through his narrowed eyes and downturned twisted mouth. Naruto watched the TA put away his laundry with short jagged movements. Before he could decide what he needed to be done for them to get past this new awkwardness and his less than rational anger, Sasuke had turned back to face him again.

"What?" Naruto snapped automatically; Sasuke's expressionless face causing another surge of fury to heat his tanned skin.

Sasuke's dark eyes shared none of the passion with which Naruto's blazed. There was an odd quiet contemplation in them. Without realising it, Naruto found Sasuke had taken the steps to stand in front of him once more.

"Hold still." Sasuke brought his face close to Naruto's. Naruto's breathing slowed as his glare ebbed away while observing the smooth skin of Sasuke's cheek.

The corner of Sasuke's mouth twitched up, "hn."

Their bodies were still apart, arms by their sides, as a surreal calm rested over them.

"Asshole," Naruto growled out after a few moments. He fisted Sasuke's shirt, dragging the other forward to clumsily bring their mouths together again.

There was no breaking apart this time. Their mouths moved with a certain rigid harshness as hands fumbled and groped for something to grasp onto. Naruto's stomach twisted within him as the onslaught of his hormones got the better of him. Sasuke's mouth was firm against his; it was really more of who could push against the other's mouth harder than an actual kiss.

Naruto felt a hard shove against his chest as he was once again pushed into the driers. Sasuke glared at him, "I couldn't breathe." A pale hand rose to wipe the side of his mouth.

"Yeah? Breathe through your nose then," Naruto mimicked the action, briefly rubbing the side of his against his lips to commit the sensation to memory.

In a flash, Sasuke was once again pressed up against him, crotch to crotch. This had Naruto reflexively bucking his hips, once, twice, before turning them around to press Sasuke against the hard surface behind.

Naruto really didn't want to stop and think about what he was doing, what this meant. He was impulsive and rash and Sasuke brought out the best and worst aspects of these qualities.

* * *

They now stood outside the apartment building. Sasuke was currently battling the desire to kick Naruto. Naruto, who stood half naked, was trying to look comfortable with said half-nakedness by crossing his arms of his chest (this way his nipples were hidden from view) and glaring at a particular spot in the air so that his eyes were glassed over and slightly cross eyed.

Their impromptu humping session had been interrupted with the piercing wailing of the fire alarm. Naruto had been all happy to ignore it and had attempted to pull Sasuke into another mind-numbing kiss as their clothed cocks rubbing happily against each other. However, Sasuke was not to be thwarted in this life or death situation. He had pushed Naruto off and started to re-button his shirt while making his way towards the door as Naruto bemoaned the loss of friction. _'Move it Uzumaki'_ Sasuke had hissed, his fingers slipping along the buttons, his mind still incredibly hazy from the pleasure induced hormones floating through his system.

Naruto had had that look on his face, as if he were going to refuse, stubbornly remain where he was while the building burnt down, just because something within him was determined not to comply with any of Sasuke's wishes.

'_Fine, stay,'_ Sasuke had growled out, turning to leave, knowing with smug confidence that Naruto would be scrambling to catch up with him in seconds.

"Sasuke, I'm cold," Naruto muttered, shifting from foot to foot, his face twisted in a scowl. They had been standing there in silence the entire time they had been out there. Without the heat of each other's bodies and the cold air whipping at their faces, their hormone levels had substantially decreased. Sasuke was currently thinking of his future at the university, Naruto most likely wondering if his ramen would scream his name as they burned in a fiery death.

Sasuke stared stonily at the man before him. His erection long gone, he was still hard pressed to not stare at the torso which certainly didn't look cold, the crossed arms emphasising Naruto's defined biceps.

"Try zipping up your fly," Sasuke muttered, secretly appreciating the immediate blush reaction. Sasuke returned to avoiding the looks of the other residents. He just _knew_ that they knew what he had been doing with Naruto. He spent most of his time keeping an exaggerated difference between himself and Naruto, who he was convinced, kept inching closer for body warmth.

Finally they were informed of the source of the fire and given the all clear to re-enter the building. Temari's attempts at acting womanly and cooking a dinner for her date had ended disastrously. Really, who knew that throwing water on an oil fire would only make it worse?

Sasuke snorted as he passed her getting lectured by several firemen, 'lectured' used loosely as they were all speaking very sternly to her ample cleavage.

* * *

Naruto glared once again at Sasuke's backside. The asshole hadn't said more than two words to him. Naruto was beginning to think that the ice-prick had multiple personalities. They were currently climbing the stairs to their apartment on the ninth floor. Sasuke hadn't seemed inclined to step into the small elevator packed with the residents all in their varying states of undress.

Naruto was torn between watching Sasuke's ass muscles flex through his jeans every time he raised his leg to pull the material taut, and demanding an explanation from the nut job that was his roommate, his somewhat teacher and apparently now his groping buddy.

The first flight of stairs Naruto had tried the oh-so-subtle coughing method to get Sasuke's attention. He had been close to hacking up his lungs before Sasuke had turned around, raising a thin eyebrow, the subtle shifts of his face producing a haughty expression. The second flight of stairs Naruto had pretended to trip up. Sasuke had chosen not to notice and Naruto had had to sprint to the fourth floor to catch up.

Naruto had had a lot of thinking time between the fourth and sixth floors, and he had axed several battle plans. Somehow he didn't think shouting 'look shiny!' would work on Sasuke like it did on Kiba. He had also considered throwing something at Sasuke, namely his shoe, but there were too many windows for his shoe to get thrown out of once it collided with Sasuke's head.

Naruto's new plan was fairly reminiscent of the cave man era. Knock the chick out with a club, drag her to the cave and impregnate her with babies while she was out cold. This was edited slightly, but it remained relatively close to the original.

This was why Sasuke had been rugby tackled to the steps of the stairs of the seventh floor with his chin smashing into the first step as Naruto's arms wrapped around his upper thighs.

"What the fuck are you playing at Naruto?!" Sasuke gritted out the words while trying to turn around.

Naruto wasn't able to articulate his words very well, and after starting and cutting short several sentences, only his last of "You kissed me!" made any sense.

"Yes." Sasuke had actually looked as if he was going to deny it.

Naruto desperately wanted to know why. If he thought about it carefully without going into another blind rage, about how stupid and moronic Uchiha was, he could probably understand why. Sasuke was most likely hopelessly in love with his sexiness, and that was the only way to show he knew how to show his feelings.

Naruto waved his hand, "I understand, you couldn't help yourself," he gestured at his _still_ very naked upper-half as he extracted himself from the tangle of limbs. Sasuke gave him a very cool withering look that had Naruto's balls trying to claw their way back inside his body.

Naruto sighed and slumped down to sit on one of the steps, legs stretched out and hands braced beside him. "What do you want from me?" his tone conveying the seriousness of the question.

Sasuke watched him with dark unreadable eyes, the intensity of his stare making Naruto scowl back with defiance. They would never get along, and maybe that's what would make it all worth it in the end.

"You confuse me," Sasuke spoke after a while. He did look like he was trying to make an effort, but really, Naruto was not a mind-reader, how was he supposed to interpret exactly what that had to do with Sasuke turning all horny on his ass?

"Listen, Uchiha, we've had a lot of run-ins these past few months, I try to rescue you from your angst-filled, yet very dull life. You reject said rescue, then you send me mixed signals: one moment you're all hot for me, then you're an ice prick and then you put the moves on me over and over and over and over an-"

Naruto's rambling was cut short as Sasuke pushed him to lie against the edges of the steps, kneeling over him and tried to suffocate him with his mouth.

The kiss turned smooth as Sasuke sucked on Naruto's bottom lip and his hands came to push through Naruto's spiky hair, holding the head still as he laid attention to the firm mouth.

* * *

Sasuke-whore, who was currently receiving his dying wish, was at present very quiet. The only thoughts running through Sasuke's mind were on shutting Naruto up while trying to sort out what it was that he wanted. It was nice that the two problems were being solved simultaneously.

Naruto started responding to the kiss, mouth opening in a show of compliance as his tongue licked at Sasuke's top lip. Sasuke's body was countering in a very needy fashion, grinding down hard on the body beneath, his cock slowly hardening within the confines of his jeans.

He needed more of this friction; his hands released Naruto's hair to move between their bodies to grasp at the buttons of his jeans while still bucking into Naruto's crotch. Their mouths began to move with certain desperation. As if one of them was dying and/or leaving on a plane tomorrow never to be seen again.

Their somewhat romantic union on the dirty staircase of a student house was interrupted by the wolf-whistling and claps that greeted their ears when the elevator door pinged open. Sasuke growled at being caught in such a compromising position by students, some of which were likely to be in his class. His immediate reaction was to hide his face, which he did by pressing his nose and mouth into the junction of Naruto's neck and shoulder, resisting the urge to bite the tanned skin there.

"Hey hey, Uzumaki! Who's your friend? Wanna introduce us?"

Sasuke did bite down when Naruto patted his behind and replied "he's shy! Come back later and I'll introduce you to the wife!"

After several minutes of exchanged pleasantries, where Naruto talked amicably with his acquaintances while holding Sasuke firmly in place on top of him, Sasuke managed to bite down hard enough to reach even Naruto's high threshold for pain.

When they finally left, Sasuke stood up, looking angrily at Naruto.

"Heh, I'm a man of opportunity? Your ass deserved that!" Naruto grinned, his legs still spread and the faint outline of a hard cock making itself apparent through his attire.

Sasuke concentrated on keeping eye contact with Naruto and not the way his body was laid out in such a wanton pose. He stepped over Naruto and continued on his quest to reach their apartment before Sasuke-whore decided public sex was an option.

* * *

Naruto entered the apartment to find Sasuke sitting on the couch. He had decided they had done enough talking for the day and that The Dagger required attention immediately. The Dagger who had blossomed beautifully to complete hardness _twice_ before dejectedly lowering down again, _twice_. Naruto was determined that blue balls were to be a thing of the past. He would sex Sasuke into any available surface to make up for all the months of unnecessary thinking he had had to do while his heart refused to beat at an appropriate pace.

"Naruto...I..." Sasuke began looking a little uncertain and hesitant, something Naruto had never seen out of him before.

"Talk later," Naruto replied as he pulled off his jeans, kicking them off along with his shoes so that he stood almost completely naked aside from his black boxer shorts and socks.

Sasuke barely had time to make a smart remark about the mismatched socks before the full weight of Naruto's body had settled on him, pushing him to lie back down on the lumpy couch behind.

Their frenzied humping soon began again; the air was punctuated with the occasional grunt and 'ah' accompanied by a demand to go faster. Naruto wasn't quite sure how much faster Sasuke wanted him to go but he had the distinct impression Sasuke thought he was the bunny running on the energizer battery.

And then the apartment phone went off, the repetitive ring punctuated each slow grind of Naruto's hips into Sasuke's, whose pants hadn't actually been worn away just yet. Naruto ignored it, searching for Sasuke's mouth again to kiss at, because he simply couldn't get enough of Sasuke's rich coffee tasting saliva.

"_Uzumaki Naruto isn't here! Leave a message and I'll get back to you. P.S if this is Neji, Kiba is still in France!"_

Naruto reached between their legs to cup firmly at Sasuke's denim-covered erection, dragging his hand up and down adding more pressure each time, while leaning back to observe the exquisite expression the pleasure brought to Sasuke's pale face.

"_Hello little brother, Professor Hatake kindly gave me this number."_

All response from Sasuke stopped at that point. Sasuke's grip on his buttocks ceased pressing Naruto down further to eliminate all distance between them. His mouth became unresponsive; no longer moving in clumsily kisses against the lips above him. And most importantly the Dagger's new friend seemed to have lost all enthusiasm.

"_I was beginning to wonder when you'd stop this foolish tantrum of yours..."_

Naruto found himself shoved off of Sasuke to meet the floor and coffee table painfully.

"What the fuck, Sasuke?!"

"_Mother is quite worried you know..."_

Sasuke was stalking towards the answer machine and its little red blinking light like a man possessed.

"_Father asked me to call, to check up on you, I assume that is his way of also showing concern..."_

The rest of the message went unheard as Sasuke had by now ripped the plug out for the answer machine.

The silence had resettled once again. Naruto was still painfully hard but Sasuke had obviously lost all interest in any sexual acts that Naruto had been dreaming of since their first kiss in the lab.

"So..." Naruto began tentatively inching closer to Sasuke who sat on the opposite end of the couch looking slightly traumatized. "I didn't know you had a brother..." that had been quite obviously the wrong way to go about getting Sasuke hot and ready for sex again as another ball receding withering gaze was directed at him.

"Um, why don't I leave you alone with the answer machine, you guys look like you could use some privacy," Naruto grinned nervously, "I'll uh... be in my room for when you're... uh.." another glare "...ready..."

* * *

**What the fuck are you brooding about your stuck-up brother for? We have ass in the next room, **_**ASS,**_** do you understand me? **_**A-S-S.­**_ After ten minutes of contemplating Itachi's death, his libido finally decided to return full blast, screaming at him about needing release. Sasuke considered just finishing himself off in the bathroom, but unfortunately now that he had felt Naruto's strong hands run their length up and down his body he could think of nothing else but feeling them again. And Itachi.

Sasuke shoved a hand through his hair. He couldn't get distracted just because Itachi had called. He had made his decision long ago and he would stick to it. That included doing Uzumaki.

He stood and made his way to Naruto's door, not bothering to knock, he turned the handle and walked in. His first reaction to the sight before him had been shock, and the second to laugh. Naruto had been lying flat on his bed, still with the mismatched socks but what had really caught Sasuke's eye was the erection being pumped with one hand while the other fisted sheets. He had wanted to laugh because Naruto's face had turned from moaning in pleasure to being flooded with panic as he scrambled for sheets to cover himself with. Sure, _now_ he had modesty.

"Learn to knock, bastard!" Naruto squeaked out, his voice reaching levels only dogs could hear.

Sasuke smirked and grabbed one end of the sheet and initiated an impromptu tug-of-war. Neither seemed inclined to give in, so Sasuke slowly started making his way forward, Naruto's blue eyes widening as Sasuke's smirk grew.

"Got a tiny cock, _Uzumaki_?" Sasuke couldn't believe how much he was enjoying himself just teasing the tanned man before him.

"Pft as if, _Uchiha_, you felt it, you should know," Naruto growled back, dropping the sheet to reveal himself.

Sasuke only got a glimpse of the slightly reddened cock, shiny with precum at the tip before he was jerked forward by the sheet and his mouth collided painfully with Naruto's chin. He barely had time to process the pain before Naruto was kissing him, tugging at the buttons of his shirt and undressing him as his hands roamed over any of the pale flesh that was revealed.

Soon the grinding began again, except this time they were both naked, and that only made it so much better. Sweat beaded on their bodies more from the exertion of flipping each other over and over on the bed, both determined to retain their top position.

"Ha... ah... condoms... lube... where the hell are they?!" Sasuke briefly stopped to search through Naruto's dresser table as Naruto ran his tongue over the column of Sasuke's pale neck. Naruto's hands on his ass momentarily halted their kneading as Naruto's motions slowed to a stop.

"Don't tell me you don't have condoms..."

Naruto's eyes widened his mouth still open from lavishing attention to Sasuke's shoulders.

"I... I..." panic set into his blue eyes once again and then he sprung into action.

"Wait there!" He leaped out of bed looking around in a mad search for his clothes, pulling on his jeans commando and grabbing a jumper. "Just wait right there, don't move!"

He grabbed a quick kiss, "Do. Not. Move."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow as he heard the apartment door slam shut.

* * *

Naruto returned a half hour later huffing and puffing from exerting himself by running all the way to the drug store and back. He'd paid a twenty for a packet of condoms and the lube. On returning he hadn't wasted anytime and had re-pounced on Sasuke who had made himself comfortable in Naruto's bed. If he had had it his way he would have pounced with a condom wrapped and lubed cock straight into Sasuke's entrance, but he had some will power.

However things had gone wrong once again. Sasuke didn't seem to understand that he would be bottom and they now stood either side of the bed in fighting stances. Sasuke had the packet of condoms in his hand, but Naruto had managed to hold onto the lube.

"Sasuke, you owe me, give me back the condoms," Naruto was trying to be reasonable.

"Oh? How so?" Sasuke seemed to have no intention of giving in.

"You... you... _months_! Asshole!" Naruto's frustrations were hitting a peak. The damn Dagger just _had_ to become picky about who it woke up in the morning for.

"That's hardly my fault that you seem unable to articulate your feelings, idiot," Sasuke shot back. "Besides, I top, or you fail my class."

Naruto wanted to punch the smirk off the bastard's face but he was having a hard time holding onto that feeling since Sasuke's lithe naked body stood just a few feet away.

"You can't make threats like that, Kakashi wouldn't let you!"

"Oh? Have you seen how Kakashi runs his course?" Sasuke looked like he was ready to pounce again, and Naruto was in desperate need to run his hands over all that pale unmarked skin of muscle and sinew. Sasuke's penis had hardened once again through the process of their arguing and Naruto couldn't keep his eyes trained directly forward.

Giving in to his primal urges Naruto leapt onto the bed and in another movement leapt onto Sasuke bringing them to the floor in one painful move.

"Give... me... those... condoms!" They rolled around on the floor trying in vain to obtain what the other had.

What had started out as fighting lead to biting, which inevitably lead to kissing. Sasuke's mouth moved against Naruto's own in a way that was so perfect and simply so right, that their movements slowed to writhing against each other on the wooden floor.

They lay side by side with Sasuke's leg thrust between Naruto's thighs, hands stroking the other's member until they found their release, coming hard as their mouths meshed together.

* * *

Sasuke's lips twitched upwards as he shoved Naruto's snoring mouth away from his. He had managed to drag Naruto up onto his bed before the other fell asleep. In doing so he had also taken the opportunity to hide the condoms and lube for future use and abuse of Naruto's ass. They lay on Naruto's twin bed, entwined despite Sasuke trying to separate himself from Naruto's overly heated body. He had failed due to the strong arms currently wrapped around his waist.

Maybe Kakashi would need to find another TA, or perhaps not, seeing as how the professor was incapable of doing any work. Either way, Sasuke decided that despite how uncomfortable he was in this bed with semen drying on him and Naruto's weight causing his shoulder to go numb, he could honestly say he had never felt happier. Sasuke-whore whole-heartedly agreed.


	14. Epilogue

**Disclaimer: All characters and settings are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am in no way associated with the owner and no copyright infringement is intended.**

* * *

**Epilogue**

* * *

**The Morning After: 2 AM**

At 2:13 AM Naruto's face met the floor. Growling, he braced his hands on the surface with his legs still stuck in bed. He couldn't believe that he _still_ managed to fall out of it; granted his was a single.

Pulling his legs from their awkward position, he climbed back in.

He landed back on the floor though when he came into contact with something warm, and a lot softer than the wall his bed was pushed up against.

Thoughts of alien intruders and would be creepy rapists swarmed his sleep fuzzed mind. Even though adrenaline was flooding through his system, his brain hadn't quite caught on yet. What could potentially be Big Foot turned in his bed. The springs creaked as Naruto held his breath.

Naruto let out a soundless scream as all his fears were confirmed; there was a zombie in his bed. Of course fifteen seconds later his mind caught on that it was actually Sasuke bathed wonderfully in the luminous moonlight. And that really he should be appreciating Sasuke's ethereal radiant beauty rather than repeating the mantra 'there's no such thing as ghosts, there's no such thing as ghosts' continuously.

He inched closer to the bed and tucked his feet underneath him to sit Indian style, with one hand curled under his chin as he contemplated the events that had lead up to this moment. It was an amazing feeling watching Sasuke sleep. The asshole was quiet, he was still, and he wasn't going anywhere.

Not anytime soon anyway.

So after all Sasuke's pansy-assed excuses about the ethics of teaching assistant - student dating, Uchiha had eventually caved into the demands of The Dagger's subliminal messaging. Naruto felt that it reflected well on how spoilt his cock was that it managed to get its way in the very end. This would have to be the last time that he would so single-mindedly listen to his muscle of love, his heart refused to take such a beating again.

He did wonder if he should be thinking too hard about what their evening of going at it like rabbits on crack meant to Sasuke. But he was fairly confident that the asshole wouldn't give in to his libido for no good reason. There _had_ to be something more, and Naruto would put his faith in that.

"Stop watching me sleep. It's creepy."

Naruto was startled out of his deep relationship thoughts, which included persuading Sasuke to don a wedding dress, when the silence was broken by Sasuke's sleepy voice. Naruto felt that squishing a sleepy Sasuke and telling him how cute he was over and over again, wouldn't go down well. So he quelled the urge and coughed in a manly gruff way.

"Shut it princess, I wouldn't be awake if you hadn't kicked me out, you're fatter than you look." Naruto watched with glee as Sasuke's eyes snapped open at that statement. The covers were around Sasuke's waist and his abdomen of lean muscle was clearly visible, glowing in that eerie way like the rest of Sasuke's skin did.

Sasuke snorted, and Naruto had to drag his gaze away to meet eyes which conveyed wry amusement.

"Go sleep on the couch then."

Naruto trusted that that was Sasuke-speak for 'get back into bed and cuddle with me so we can fall asleep spooning'. This was exactly what he tried to do when Sasuke's foot met his stomach to propel him back to the floor.

"You're too warm to sleep with," Sasuke turned away, presenting a pale back with a hint of butt cleavage that had the Dagger standing to attention, ready for action.

Naruto wasn't about to give in so easily, and moments later he was wrestling with Sasuke over who would get the most space and arguing over whose fat ass needed to go to the gym more.

"Naruto, it's half two in the morning, I am not catering to the needs of your dick." Sasuke had become reacquainted with the now hard Dagger, who was very insistent about getting to know Sasuke better inside and out. With one last shove, Naruto was back on the floor.

Naruto decided that arguing with Sasuke wasn't going to get him anywhere, instead, he grabbed a hold of his duvet (the one currently covering Sasuke) yanked it off and marched out of the room.

A few minutes later he was happily settled into Sasuke's bed. Three duvets piled on top of him and a pillow smelling like Uchiha, what more could he want? Oh right, yeah, having glow-in-the-dark boy might have made it perfect, but Naruto would take what he could get. For now.

He was drifting into sleep when an enraged Sasuke entered the room, flicking on the light switch so that his retinas burned. Promptly kicked out of his warm cocoon, Naruto was now getting more than a little pissed off.

"_My_ apartment, I'll sleep in whatever bed I like!" Naruto was ignored.

Surprisingly, when he made another mad attempt to get into the bed, Sasuke's resistance was minimal. They lay side by side, arms touching, looking at the ceiling.

As awkward as it was and as many conversation starters that flew through Naruto's now entirely alert mind, he didn't feel inclined to break the silence and settled for listening to Sasuke's quiet breathing, wondering if trying to hold his hand would come off as too forward.

"I'm not switching off the light."

"Fine."

"Good."

"_Fine._"

* * *

**One Week Later: Dishes **

The apple connected hard with the wall rather than with its intended target, landing with a clunk on the floor.

"_My god_, you are such a frigging chick, what are you gonna do next?! Throw dishes at me?!"

"I would, if the dishes were more than paper plates," Sasuke bit out scathingly.

They stood in stiff stances facing each other off in the centre of the apartment. Sasuke's upper lip was curled, expressing his desire to rip Uzumaki a new pair. Naruto's fists were bunched and shaking at his side.

He was holding a black bin liner and was in the process of clearing up the place for the second time that day. Naruto's brow was drawn together in angry lines of confusion as Sasuke made sharp jagged movements as he walked around throwing things into the trash bag. Things like the numerous pizza boxes, the ever multiplying ramen cartons and, of course, Naruto's wide array of orange clothing.

"Hey! Stop that! Those are my clothes!" Naruto moved to climb over the sofa to wrestle his belongings back but Sasuke moved quickly out of reach and continued on with his task.

"This place is a complete fucking mess," he hissed in the direction of the idiot who had managed to get his foot stuck in the cushions of the couch.

"Yeah? Well you weren't complaining about it all this time, until now! What's your problem anyway?" Naruto grunted as he pulled his leg free only to hit the back of the other one against the coffee table, which he kicked, adding to the self-abuse of his body.

Sasuke didn't respond with the retort that was on the tip of his tongue. To be honest he didn't really know what he was getting so worked up over. Only that ever since they had started this 'being together' crap Naruto only managed to get on his nerves even more.

That wasn't to say that the relationship hadn't been going well. If it could really be called a relationship. They always seemed to just miss each other despite living together. Naruto had been spending a lot of his time in the library, claiming he couldn't work if Sasuke kept making 'tutting' sounds at his colour choices for his graphs. Sasuke had retaliated with spending even more time at the lab, Kakashi's quiet company pissing him off less than usual.

When they were around each other, it usually led to sex, or some form of sex, which inevitably lead to sleeping, consequently leading to Sasuke being late for lectures. It should have been great, sex was meant to be a great stress reliever, and it wasn't that Sasuke didn't enjoy it, but it did leave Sasuke wondering if that this was all there really was. The unformed question in his mind remained there; how could they possibly make this work if they couldn't last five minutes without having an argument if sex wasn't involved?

Sasuke growled low in his throat as he entered the kitchen, Naruto could fucking organise all his ramen by brand, flavour and size but he could do nothing to keep their apartment in any state fit for a human being.

"Don't you dare!" Naruto's voice was raised to hysteric levels as he saw Sasuke eyeing the cupboards with malicious intent burning in his dark eyes.

Sasuke moved towards them with purpose before his path was blocked by Naruto, anger flashing red briefly in his eyes.

"Listen asshole, if you've got some sort of problem, tell me now before I decide to beat some sense into you," Sasuke was surprised by the rage behind the words, Naruto hadn't spoken to him like that since their first meeting in the lecture hall after he had avoided Sasuke for over a month. The same thrill rushed through him as it had done then.

"As if you could."

Naruto dragged Sasuke closer by grabbing the collar of his shirt. "Spit it out already! I don't have time to go digging around your ass to find out what's lodged up there this time."

It turned into a long conversation of Naruto stuttering 'but I didn't...' and 'you didn't say...' and 'how the fuck was I supposed to know...' with Sasuke trying to communicate his not quite feelings with a range of expressions through his eyes and the occasional facial muscle spasm.

"Not my fault you don't know how to have a relationship like an actual adult."  
Naruto fisted Sasuke's shirt again, pushing him up against the counter behind.

"I'm not a fucking mind-reader."

Sasuke shrugged.

"I can give you more," Naruto growled, though his eyes held a certain desperation.

Sasuke didn't want to say that yes, he would indeed like more, that it wasn't just Naruto's body he wanted to be with. But it all sounded entirely too chick flick for his tastes. So he glared in an arrogant manner, hoping Naruto would get the message.

"Do you... uh... like want to go on a date...?" Naruto's rage had trailed off and now he looked uncertain. Sasuke wanted to laugh at the proposal but he could see the idiot was making an effort.

"No."

Naruto punched him.

Call Sasuke crazy, but the anger turned him on.

_Seventeen minutes later_

"Fuck, make-up sex is _good_, man, I need a cigarette."

"You don't smoke."

"I could if I wanted to!"

* * *

**One Month Later: The Mission**

After having an extremely long, very much one-sided conversation with Gaara, who may or may not have fallen asleep with his eyes open, Naruto came to a decision. While Naruto's January exams had finished, Sasuke had been stuck overworking, marking papers, dissertations, and tests. The first time the TA had pulled an all-nighter at the lab without telling Naruto what he was doing or where he was, Naruto had worried himself sick, to the point where he had gone out to search for him. It didn't occur to Naruto that Sasuke was Sasuke, and that Sasuke had no life outside the lab, naturally it had been the last place he had looked.

Learning from experience, this time Naruto would go prepared. If Sasuke was going to insist on spending the night in the lab (which in itself was completely against university rules) Naruto would be spending it with him.

He was meant to be dog sitting Akamaru that night, since Kiba and Hinata had gone on some fancy rendezvous involving a cheesy romantic dinner and most likely resulting in love making by the candle light of some four star hotel (far, far away from Neji's all seeing eyes). He did figure that having Akamaru there would probably make the experience that much more memorable and had said so too. As expected Kiba had chased him around looking like an enraged tomato and Hinata had spent a lot of time wondering what Naruto had meant.

Naruto had left Akamaru with Gaara. He had completely missed the life spark that had ignited in the pale green eyes, and he had given a confused frown at Akamaru's whining and hiding between his legs. A pet was exactly what Gaara needed to brighten up his tortured artist lifestyle.

He went through the apartment picking up supplies. A flashlight (with no batteries), pop tarts for the way there, Chinese food he had left over from earlier for Sasuke, a sleeping bag and orange soda (the wonders of which he had discovered from watching the 'Kenan and Kel' show).

Getting into the lab had been easier than he thought. He had arrived dressed head to toe in black. He would have smeared shoe polish across his cheeks too had he been able to find it. He had spent a lot of time contemplating how to slip past the security guard, which had been a waste of time since he was spotted and waved over. After Sasuke's little hissy fit, Naruto had been doing his coursework in the lab with Sasuke, and this was also how he came to be on a high five basis with the guard. Naruto had pouted about not being able to sneak in stealthily like a ninja and maybe scale the walls, but he supposed it was better this way.

Now he stood by Sasuke's desk with his mouth pulled into a wide grin. Sasuke had fallen asleep on his laptop, there had to be something said for the now gibberish written on the screen for about ten pages.

He stepped behind the chair and began kissing the pale neck earning little moans as Sasuke's face turned on the keyboard. It felt nice to be close to the other again, even if Sasuke wasn't conscious. Naruto was trying very hard not to think about what molesting a comatose person meant.

As he kissed his way up the neck, along the jaw line to the expanse of Sasuke's cheek, Naruto watched the slight twitching of Sasuke's lashes carefully. He really didn't want to find out the consequences of doing this; he could very easily envision a swift kick to the balls accompanied by a hit to the stomach. Sasuke could be violent when he wanted to be.

He trailed his tongue over the shell of Sasuke's ear before biting down gently on the lobe. Naruto grinned at Sasuke's reactions to his ministrations. He bent over the chair nuzzling his face into Sasuke's neck as his hand wormed its way underneath Sasuke to run down his chest over the lab coat to the growing erection restrained by black pants. Very slowly he began applying pressure enjoying the feeling of the cock growing in his hand.

Until Sasuke woke up.

"What are you doing?"

Naruto blinked innocently at him, never mind that his hand was still on Sasuke's dick.

"Raping you," Naruto grinned broadly as Sasuke raised an eyebrow, shoved the offending hand way while pushing his chair out from the desk.

"I have work to do. Go home." Sasuke's words came out sharp, but his cheeks were flushed. He turned all of his attention on the laptop, ignoring Naruto entirely.

Naruto was hurt for all of twenty seconds and then shrugged it off. Sasuke was Sasuke. He turned around and started to lay out the sleeping bag on the floor and then began undressing.

"What are you doing?" came the question for the second time that night.

"Going to bed," Naruto replied without turning around. He stripped to his boxers and then knelt down to climb in. "You haven't been home much," again he spoke without facing Sasuke.

"Hn."

Naruto spent about ten minutes watching Sasuke's back as the TA worked. Except he couldn't have been working all that hard if the constant shifting in his chair was any indication.

"I can blow you if you like."

Sasuke twitched.

Naruto grinned, it never failed to amuse him how easily he could provoke Sasuke. He made his way over. Sasuke did struggle at first, but eventually he managed to wrestle the man into sitting on the desk, Naruto taking up his vacated seat.

"Right!" Naruto cracked his knuckles, then threaded his fingers and pushed his hands outwards to stretch the joints. He contemplated Sasuke's crotch with the look of a man serious about his task.

"Get on with it, don't just look at it," Sasuke growled.

Naruto looked into Sasuke's lust darkened eyes, "Yes captain!" he saluted.

He made quick work of the belt and zip, pulling out The Dagger's friend with eagerness. He licked his lips before he placed his mouth around the head, sucking slightly until he felt Sasuke's hands come to rest in his hair, moving down to massage at the back of his neck. Naruto groaned at the feel of Sasuke's supple fingers rubbing in soothing firm motions; more of the cock entered his mouth.

Sasuke's hands moved to his nude shoulders pressing hard on them to elicit louder moans from Naruto, who moved up and down on Sasuke's length a little faster. Naruto felt like he was less in control given their positions but he couldn't help lavishing more attention on the hard penis filling his mouth when Sasuke's hands travelled as far down his back as they could to press touches along his spine.

One hand came to squeeze Sasuke's thigh while another massaged his balls through the material of his pants and boxers.

"Fuck! Naruto!"

He let it slip from his mouth and with the flat of his tongue licked the head in a swirl motion. One of Sasuke's hands came to grip at his hair, urging his head down.

"Come home tonight,"

Sasuke's eyes snapped open to meet Naruto's earnest ones.

"No," Sasuke grunted out, Naruto's warm saliva was starting to cool, "I have work to do, you know this."

Naruto grinned. His hand came to fist the base of Sasuke's cock with a quick firm pump. He brought his mouth closer to Sasuke's tip, his tongue flicking out but not touching.

"Naruto..." Sasuke warned. Naruto didn't know why he bothered; they both knew how stubborn the other was.

Precum pearled and Naruto licked it up with a quick flick of his tongue causing Sasuke's head to flip upwards, his hips following a similar motion.

"Fine!" Sasuke probably meant to sound irritated, but it came out so needy that Naruto's own cock hardened even more.

His head bobbed up and down as Sasuke kept a firm hold on Naruto's hair, pulling at the pace he wanted. Sasuke's come came hot, fast and salty in Naruto's mouth. Naruto rose quickly to push his lips against Sasuke's open mouth forcing him to taste himself.

"Now my turn!"

"No."

"What?!"

* * *

**Six Months Later: The Inquisition **

"Hold still." Sasuke was tempted to strangle him with the orange silk tie he was currently threading around the wriggling person before him.

"Hey, hey, Sasuke! Do you think they'll show me baby pictures of you?" Naruto's eyes went large at the thought.

"No. Now shut up." Sasuke finished tying the tie. He pulled the man before him by the open belt buckle to soundly kiss at his mouth.

Naruto had spent a large proportion of the last few months pestering Sasuke about his family. He wanted to know everything about them. Sasuke understood where he was coming from, Naruto's own lack of relatives only made him more fascinated with the dynamics of Sasuke's own.

Sasuke had managed to fend off Naruto's desire to meet the rest of the Uchiha family but after Itachi had ever so kindly informed Fugaku of Sasuke's orientation, Sasuke's mother had joined the waging war of complicating Sasuke's life. It had taken them a while to deal with it; there had been a lot of silence on Fugaku's part and quite a few tears on Mikoto's. However after a lot of raging, Fugaku was now insisting on meeting Naruto. Possibly to get a good idea about what he looked like in order to put a hit out on him.

Naruto of course was delighted. He had saved up for a suit, brought Mikoto flowers and he had even read up on recent world politics and the state of the economical affairs to further impress Sasuke's father; how much he remembered of it all was another matter. Naruto wanted to do everything in his power to make the best first impression _ever_. Sasuke was a little worried about this obsession, since things tended to go ever so slightly wrong when Naruto was enthusiastic about something.

The journey there didn't take long as Itachi had sent a car around. If Naruto had stopped sticking his head out of the roof of the car, Sasuke would have been less ticked off. As it was when he did settle down, he developed a new fantasy about car sex. That was how they now stood looking a little less put together at the entrance to the mansion, with Naruto handing the bent flowers to the maid, telling her how nice it was to finally meet her and he could see where Sasuke got his good looks from.

Sasuke could see everything going wrong from that moment on.

Except it didn't.

Naruto charmed the living daylights out of Mikoto, complimenting her on everything from her fashion sense to the house decor to her roses growing out at the entrance. Fugaku wasn't quite so easy; his glare didn't soften at Naruto's attempts to start a conversation with him. Naruto failed miserably at remembering all that he had read up on and made critical mistakes naming world leaders in reference to what he was talking about. Fugaku's mood certainly didn't improve when Naruto used the dessert spoon to drink the pea soup starter course and it didn't help that Naruto got the look of someone who was highly constipated after trying it.

Fugaku did however become interested when Naruto talked sports. Sasuke stared, dumbfounded, as his father and boyfriend talked animatedly about _cricket_. Naruto's arms gestured widely as he described some sort of play while his father actually _laughed_. Sasuke would be a liar if he said he hadn't felt a twinge of jealousy. But it was ok because Naruto looked happy.

That and, Itachi looked just as pissed off.

* * *

**One Year Later: Déjà vu**

Sasuke pushed his index and middle finger up against his temple and rubbed, closing his eyes to feel some sort of soothing relief from the migraine that was currently building. His promotion had led to even more work being piled lovingly by Kakashi onto his shoulders. He listened to the sounds of students leaving the lecture hall and contemplated falling asleep there and then at the desk until the next set of still hung-over from the night before students entered the hall.

He would be meeting Naruto after giving his last lecture. His boyfriend had successfully graduated from the university and had decided to take up a job in finance of all things; Naruto's attention span still baffled Sasuke. They would be having lunch together since Naruto had just got back from a business trip and most likely the first thing in his blond head was fucking Sasuke into euphoria. It had been nice to have the apartment to himself for a while, but absence really did make the heart fonder as Sasuke had found him missing the loud voice whooping every time the microwave pinged announcing 'ramen-time'.

The fact that he had three tubes of lube in his lab coat pocket was also a sign of his sexual frustration (condoms were now a thing of the past). Sasuke-whore had been insisting on masturbation for two weeks straight, his right arm had been getting quite the work out. The wait had better be worth it, or Sasuke would be making Naruto pay.

Lost momentarily in his thoughts of pushing in and out of Naruto's ass, his mind trying to settle on which he'd like to have first; doggy-style or cowgirl, Sasuke didn't notice the one remaining student standing close to his desk fidgeting nervously with the tail of a blue scarf.

Sasuke raised his eyebrow at the eccentric attire of goggles strapped to the boy's forehead and the stupidly long scarf wrapped around his neck. He scanned the student list to find the name; Sarutobi Konohamaru.

"What is it Konoha-"

"Wanna fuck?"

Silence.

"Get. Out."

One idiot in his life was enough.

**The End.**

* * *

**A/N: Thanks so much to everyone for reading and reviewing! You guys have been so great and I really appreciate the time everyone takes to leave a comment. I hope everybody enjoyed reading Conquest as much as I did writing it :D  
**

**Fanart: http / / silverwyrm. livejournal. com/ 8338.html**


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